Tesla vehicles are now being deployed by Belgium police
31 August 2018
Fred Lambert August 31st 2018 11:12 am PT
Tesla’s electric vehicles have become increasingly popular lately with police departments around the world and the latest example come from Belgium where a police force has purchased two Tesla vehicles from a local independent Tesla dealership.
Electric vehicles are often a great option to reduce both cost and emissions from a car fleet, but there were performance concerns for them to be used as police vehicles.
With Tesla’s high-performance cars, some decided to make the jump.
In the US, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Denver Police Department are both using Model S sedans as part of their fleets. Ontario Provincial Police got a Model X, Swiss Police replaced diesel cruisers with 7 Tesla Model X 100Ds, and Tesla police vehicles are going on patrol in Luxembourg.
Now the Zaventem police department in Belgium bought two Model S sedans from Nikola, an unofficial used Tesla dealership, body shop, and detailer in de Londerzeel, Belgium.
We first reported on the company last year when they installed a Tesla Powerpack system at their facilitiy.
They worked with the Zaventem police to modify a Tesla Model S 85D to be used as a patrol vehicle. Nikola sent us the following images:
They determined that the range and performance were plenty sufficient to act as a patrol car and chase down suspects if needed.
Nikola also delivered a Model S 90D to the police department, but they told Electrek that the electric vehicle will be used by the police chief as an unmarked car. They plan to install new charging stations at their offices in order to support their new EVs.
Based on our count, it’s now the fifth police department to use Tesla vehicles as part of their fleet.
While the cost of acquisition is often much higher than the average gas-powered car used as police cruisers, the overall cost of ownership can often be lower due to electric vehicles having much lower fuel and maintenance costs.
