The police are switching to electricity. They already have so many electric cars

Electric cars still have not convinced Poles. The results of the study “Poles’ wallets under the microscope” commissioned by Volkswagen Financial Services were recently published and it turns out that only 4 percent respondents are planning to buy an electric car. Niche. Maybe vehicles of this type are more popular in the services? As an answer, you can take a look at the Austrian and Polish police.

A few weeks ago, the Austrian experiment in electromobility became loud in the media. The project started in 2023, is called Tron, and its goal is to check how electric vehicles perform as police cars. Well, it turned out that… they were doing poorly. This was demonstrated by tests involving Volkswagen cars (ID.3 and ID.4) and Porsche Taycan.

Officers using the above-mentioned vehicles complained about various issues: from insufficient range, through too small trunk capacity, to control limited to touch screens. It is easy to guess that this immediately became a source of ridicule among supporters of internal combustion motoring, but it is worth remembering that, for example, the mentioned controls transferred to the screen apply not only to electric cars.

Does this mean that electric cars will no longer power the police fleet in Austria? It is difficult to say, it may turn out that they simply will not be delegated to specific tasks, e.g. patrolling the streets, because they are energy-consuming and burden the battery. The tests are said to last until the end of the year, and only then will conclusions be drawn and decisions made.

Why am I coming back to this topic? Because electric police cars have appeared not only in the Austrian police – our officers also use them. And actually, this is not news. Back in 2014, the Provincial Police Headquarters in Szczecin boasted that the local traffic police had acquired an electric police car. It was emphasized that this was the only vehicle of this type in Poland. Interestingly, the first electrician in the Police appeared even earlier – in 2013.

A little has changed since then. At the end of 2018, the Szczecin police announced another four electric police cars that had joined their fleet. These were Nissan e-NV200 and Nissan Leaf. The vehicles were sent to patrol service, but also to, for example, the Road Traffic Department. It was reported then that the investment cost amounted to PLN 670,000. PLN, of which over 470 thousand donated by the Provincial Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Szczecin.

Less than two years later, the Lublin garrison reported that it had acquired the first two electric police cars. In this case, financial support was also sought from the Provincial Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. The result was the purchase of Kia e-Niro cars. The cars were handed over to officers of the Municipal Police Headquarters in Lublin

In turn, in 2022, the Kuyavian-Pomeranian garrison will be equipped with electric police cars. Four Hyundai e-Kona cars were delivered to Bydgoszcz, Toruń and Inowrocław, with the financial support of the Voivodeship Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Toruń. The price of one electric car reached almost PLN 200,000. zloty.

These purchases can, of course, be multiplied, but in the end it still leads to an important question: what does it look like as a whole? How many electric cars are currently in the Polish police fleet? I went to the Police Headquarters with this question. And I got the answer. Well, on January 1 this year. our officers had in use 164 marked and unmarked electric police cars. This amounted to 0.7 percent. total fleet of police vehicles.

Does this number mean an upper limit? Since Austrians are not satisfied with the tests… It turns out that in Poland it looks different: in the first months of this year. Police units reported purchasing another 11 electric cars. The ceiling of 200 cars of this type is slowly appearing on the horizon. Which models dominate? What role do they play? And perhaps most importantly: do local police officers complain about e-police cars? We asked about it.

The main brands and models used by the Police are: Kia Niro, Hyundai Kona, Nissan (Leaf, Townstar), Peugeot e-Rifter, Opel Corsa-e, Renault Kangoo. Vehicles of this type are intended to perform tasks in both criminal, preventive and support services. The Logistics Office of the Police Headquarters did not receive any comments regarding the use of electric vehicles