Bargersville, Indiana. You’ve probably never heard of this small town of around 9,000 residents in “The Crossroads of America” but now you have. This small town is making the news cycle because they’ve decided to replace one of their Dodge Charger police cruisers with the Tesla Model 3.
That’s right, the Tesla Model 3 is the new official police cruiser of the Bargersville, Indiana police department. Well, at least one of them. If you’re a regular reader of any tech news website you know that Tesla is a subject many of us cover. Electric cars are seemingly the future of transportation so seeing a municipality adopt the technology is pretty significant news.
Bargersville, Indiana has exactly 12 police officers so that leaves 11 more cars to go. The Tesla Model 3 actually costs more than the Dodge Charger but saving could be had in the lack of oil and gas needs for the Charger. The Tesla costs US$39,500, while the Charger costs US$25,000. After police upgrades, the prices jump to US$41,945 and US$33,612.
As we mentioned, the cost of fuel and maintenance on the Dodge Charger reaches US8,000 per year. According to the Bargersville, Indiana police department, the cost of maintenance and fuel for the Tesla Model 3 will be a lower US$1,728.
The Tesla Model 3 brings stealth to crime-fighting, too. Bargersville PD public information officer Jeremy Roll explaining how police could “come upon something a little bit more discreetly” in the Tesla, a feature that will come in handy due to having “a lot of back alleys in the old town.”
Officer comfort gets a boost, too, since personnel can pre-heat the Tesla’s cabin in the winter, something they can’t do with their Chargers. On top of that, Police Chief Todd Bertram told CBS4, “With Tesla, the performance is better than the cars we are currently driving. It’s amazing, it’s smooth, it’s powerful, it handles great.”
The Bargersville, Indiana police department intends on buying four more Model 3’s to add to the fleet and also plan on hiring more officers with the maintenance savings.
What do you think about Model 3’s as police cruisers? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, or Facebook. You can also comment on our MeWe page by joining the MeWe social network.
[button link=”https://www.autoblog.com/2019/08/31/tesla-model-3-police-cost-savings-bargersville/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: autoblog[/button]Last Updated on February 3, 2021.
