On the 5th July the BBC reported that the PCC of Gloucester Constabulary Chris Nelson said of his electric police cars, "I wouldn't want them to run out of power, simply because he or she is in an electric car”. A fifth of his force are electric vehicles but the EV sceptic PCC worries that his response cars would run out of juice as they are chasing criminals.
All the available evidence suggests that Nelson isn’t exactly telling the truth on the matter. A recent LinkedIn blog by Tesla suggests that the average Blue advanced driving session by a UK response car is between 7-15 minutes on average, and even with blue lights, radio and heating on, the Model 3 police cars can manage up to 200 miles of full blast driving.
There are times when a police force will need extra juice. On the Gloucester Constabulary patch for instance, a team may need to ambush a drug dealer’s car northbound on the M5. The team could be topped up using a mobile charger at Welcome Break Michaelwood Services and even if they ended up in a high speed chase down the M50 to Ross on Wye they wouldn’t need to top up based on Tesla data!
No, we aren’t talking of a newfangled Taser! We are however talking of a mobile charging unit that could be kept in a police Transit that could be brought to either pre-ambush rendezvous locations to supply a top-up, or at the end of a chase supply energy to the response car to get it home.
Maintenance is a major part of keeping police cars on the road, and the Tesla LinkedIn post strongly suggested that maintenance costs are far lower on electric cars than they are on internal combustion engined ones.
James Foster, CEO of ZPN Energy says,
“A ZAPME unit could offer peace of mind to a police force fleet management team as they can then guarantee 100% uptime of their vehicles when on normal patrol and response duties. By being able to top up anywhere and any time, you can be assured that it won’t be your electric car that stops you catching the bad guys!”
The ZAPME units come in three sizes, ranging from one that will sit in the boot of an estate car and give a full charge to one car, to one that will sit in in the back of a medium sized Transit and offer full charges to three or four - plenty enough for a team about to box in a car on the motorway. Once more, the charging speeds can be as high as 150kW - offering 100 miles of charge in just 15 minutes or so. Finally, these come with a range of connectors including the Tesla and CCS protocols.
James adds,
“The ZAPME units will kill off any reservations as to issues around range, and this can only help police forces into the full transition to the EV Revolution!”
Story by ZPN Energy
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