Why do our police keep avoiding electric vehicles?

Monday, 25 January 2021

The New South Wales Police Force has confirmed it will be testing a fully electric Hyundai Kona for twelve months as part of the Crime Prevention Unit as well as for community engagement. That’s a great move by the NSW Police but it also begs the question – why aren’t we doing the same?

Electric vehicles are being used by police forces around the world already. The Kona EV is being deployed in countries like Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom while the hydrogen-powered Nexo is also seeing use in England and Germany.

When the New Zealand police announced Skoda as the winner of the next vehicle supplier contract last year, it said that it “has a small number of electric and hybrid cars for use in non-operational roles. Police intends to expand the number of low/no-emission vehicles through the annual replacement programme.”

The New South Wales Police Force is the latest to start testing a fully electric vehicle for police duties. But why aren't we?

The release continued: “New Zealand Police is in the process of developing a 10-Year Fleet strategy (2020-2030), which will outline a roadmap to reducing CO2 emissions and improve sustainability across the Police fleet over the next decade.

**READ MORE:

Police have selected Skoda station wagons as their new frontline patrol cars. The new Octavia is not far away and could come as a plug-in hybrid at some point in the future, though it isn't confirmed for NZ yet.

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* NZ police select Skoda to supply new cop cars as Holden rolls into sunset

Skoda is readying its first fully electric vehicle for launch, called the Enyaq iV. New Zealand is reportedly high on the list for export, which bodes well for the Police.

* The long history of the company that now provides our police cars

* How the Govt's switch to buying EVs could make them cheaper for all of us

The Skoda Superb, which is due to make its NZ Police debut in April, already has a plug-in version available over in Europe. There’s no word yet on if it’ll launch here.

* NZ Police has only one hybrid car out of 3000, despite government's climate goals

“This evaluation gave Police some real experience with electric and hybrid vehicles and provided practical learnings for their future implementation. While the technology does not currently align with Police’s core business requirements, EVs and hybrids will continue to be tested as the technology improves in terms of vehicle performance and range.

“Police will actively introduce more electric and hybrid vehicles into its fleet for use in non-operational roles from 2021.”

At the moment, there’s no real information on what that actually entails. It could mean Police are considering adding dozens of hybrids and EVs to the fleet per year or it could mean one or two. Probably the latter, considering Skoda doesn’t yet offer a fully electric vehicle, or hybrids for that matter. The Octavia will get a plug-in version this year but it’s not yet confirmed for New Zealand.

And as for the technology not currently aligning with Police’s core business requirements, how often do Police vehicles need to travel more than 450km per day? There are plenty of chargers around the country now too, so that argument is pretty much moot.

I’m not saying we need to crush every single combustion-powered police car immediately, mind. I’m just wanting to know why we can’t have both.

We like to think of New Zealand as clean and green but without pushes from various agencies like the Police, it’s hard to actually justify that vision. The average age of vehicles here is 14 and while electrified vehicles are on the rise, they are drops in the ocean compared to new combustion-based vehicle sales.

It’s pretty common knowledge that as fleet vehicles reach the end of their lease, they hit the second-hand market and, in the case of electric vehicles, offer a cheap, easy entry into no-emissions driving. In New Zealand, that’s pretty crucial as we don’t yet have any meaningful incentive programmes… though not for lack of trying.

Obviously vehicles that have been in police use for a few years might not be totally ideal for civilian duties but police vehicles don’t necessarily mean “driven within an inch of its life,” especially now that there is a ban on pursuits. And how many times have you seen “owned by one lady owner” on a 100,000km-plus car and gone “oh it’s probably fine…”?

But I digress. Skoda is readying new electric vehicles like the Enyaq iV for launch this year, along with plug-in hybrid options of existing models like the Octavia. The NZ Police could easily tap these for low/zero emission fleet vehicles but there has been no official word yet.

When contacted by Stuff, a Police spokesperson said that there are currently eight electric vehicles in the fleet (not frontline), four of which were purchased and four leased.

As for new electric and hybrid vehicles, the options submitted in the recent tender for Prime 1 (main operational) vehicles “did not meet Police’s operational requirements.” The spokesperson didn’t elaborate on what those requirements were. Although it could well have something to do with the persistent rumours we hear that suggest some hybrid electrical systems generate frequencies that interfere with the police’s elderly radio systems…

“However, we are committed to adopting low emission vehicles into our overall fleet,” the Police spokesperson said. “We expect this will include a significant increase in hybrid and electric vehicles generally in the non-prime vehicle patrol space (35 per cent of our overall fleet). The change to the Skoda Superb for Police’s Prime 1 Vehicle will reduce carbon emissions by up to 30 per cent as this is rolled out.”