LAPD shows off its Tesla and BMW EVs and promises to add more to its fleet
The Los Angeles Police Department recently showed off a Tesla Model S and a BMW i3 as the newest members of its police car fleet in the name of &ldquo;testing and research.&rdquo; The two cars are being loaned to the LAPD and were unveiled as part of the announcement of a broader plan to bring 288 new electric and hybrid vehicles to LA's city-owned fleet. On Friday, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the Los Angeles police, fire, general services, and water and power departments will lease 160 pure battery electric vehicles; and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and General Services Department will lease 128 plug-in hybrid vehicles. These 288 electric vehicles will replace older city vehicles.

Los Angeles is taking some big steps to cut down its carbon footprint and one of those steps is to build the country’s largest fleet of electric vehicles. The city has announced that it’s going to lease 160 purely electric cars, the number itself is going to make Los Angeles the own of the nation’s largest EV fleet. That’s not all, as part of this plan the city is also going to induct 128 hybrid plug-in vehicles in its fleet to further boost the Sustainable City Plan.

Speaking at a news conference earlier this week outside the headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department Mayor Eric Garcetti said “When we laid out our sustainable city plan … we promised that 50% of new city fleet vehicles purchased each year would be EV by 2017,” pointing out that the city is fulfilling that promise ahead of schedule.

Electric vehicles acquired by LA will be split between the fire, police and general service departments as well as the Department of Water and Power and the General Services Department both of which will also lease the hybrids.

LAPD is going to receive the lion’s share though of the purely electric cars, it’s already been handed over a Tesla Model S P85D and a BMW i, bad guys should think twice before assuming that these EVs won’t be able to catch up with them, they’re fast and the Model S P85D even has an “ludicrous mode“.

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