NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The New York City Police Department has a new cruiser that will be silently plying the city streets very soon. Among 70 new electrically-driven vehicles purchased by the City of New York will be 50 Chevrolet Volts that will be used for, among other things, police work. The Volts won't be chasing down bank robbers -- at least not yet. They'll be used by traffic enforcement agents who cruise the city's streets writing parking tickets. The Volt will be the first electric car used by the New York City Police Department, although the department already uses a number of hybrid cars and electric scooters. General Motors (GM, Fortune 500), which makes the Chevrolet Volt, calls it an "extended-range electric vehicle." It can travel up to 35 miles on a fully charged battery, according to EPA estimates. After that, a gasoline engine generates power for continued driving. The city also purchased 10 Ford Transit Connect Electric vans and 10 Navistar E-star electric utility trucks. 0:00 / 5:42 The Chevy Volt smackdown Among the agencies using the vehicles will be the city's Departments of Correction, Environmental Protection, Sanitation and the Fire Department. "The largest-ever increase in the City's electric-powered vehicle fleet is not only good for the environment, it's good for city taxpayers, too," Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith said in an announcement. "Using electric vehicles reduces air pollution and carbon emissions while also lowering gasoline consumption." The vehicles were purchased using grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy and the New York Power Authority. Chevy Volt newest New York City police car - Jul. 13, 2011
Honolulu PD has a few Camry Hybrids on the force as patrol vehicles. Good for NYPD even though they are Volts, I would be happier if they were Prii instead.
How many miles does the NYPD put on a traffic enforcement vehicle in a day? They don't seem like a particularly good candidate for a Volt.
I agree with Corwyn: The Volt loses its advantage as soon as its gas engine starts. If they're driving it all day long, a Prius will burn less gas and pollute less. The only niche where the Volt makes any sense at all (assuming you want to throw away a bundle of cash) is if most days you drive less than 35 miles but you need to drive more than 100 miles occasionally. If you're always driving less than 100 miles, the Leaf makes more sense, and if you frequently drive more than 50 or so, the Prius makes more sense, and both the Leaf and the Prius are cheaper.
i think it's over-spending... it's only 50 cars, so maybe they'll use them for specific short runs... but i highly doubt it. it's really about a responsible as possible purchase for the grant you get.. though they are looking at it as a fair mix of hybrid vehicles. two prii for the price of one volt (not exactly.. i know).... plus better mpg in the long run... maybe i'm too much of a prius fanatic...
I see alot of Hybrid LA parking enforcement such as Prii and Civics. Almost all of them have the HOV sticker. Wth does parking enforcement need HOV stickers for? They handing out parking tickets on cars parked on the freeway? I thought that was CHP's job. LAPD is overstepping CHP's turf.
Wow, tough crowd. It especially seems crazy when NYPD picked the altima hybrid for their hybrid on the fleet, not the prius. The volt will be replacing conventional cruisers that gets an 8-12mpg city. The volt with an city epa of 35mpgs should get more than twice the mileage after its battery runs down. The volt will be able to get much better mileage and sneak up on people. I'm betting with the police driving profile it will likely get better mileage than even the altima hybrids in the fleet after the battery is used up. http://www.greencarreports.com/news...ugh-enough-to-be-police-cars-in-new-york-city They do have prii, and altimas, and escapes, and fussions. Why not use the volt too. Now if you want to complain about choices fine, but you should have been complaining that they picked the altima over the prius. If you didn't then, why do you think when NYPD picked the only PHEV on the market its an awful thing. And no this is not taking a big part of the NYC budget, if that is what your complaints are pretending to be able.
Cool, we could have the mother of all Tasar guns by hooking up to the Li batt. :laser: But on your point V8, another article listed various grants and outside $$ they were getting from DOE and charging station interests. Could not find the article, but guess it helps the cost.
actually the NYPD currently have many Prii in it's fleet, mainly for traffic enforcement. I've also seen a Fusion Hybrid, and a few larger hybrid suvs, domestic. I've never seen an NYPD HiHy but city is a big place. Daniel, Traffic Enforcement 'needs' to sneak up on cars during alternate side street cleaning so it's easier for them to give tickets.
Have you seen LEOs hypermiling their Crown Vics? Hell no. Those things get about 10mpg the way cops stomp on the gas peddle at every light. A typical CHP cruiser uses about 1/2 -3/4 tank of gas per shift depending on their beat. Sometimes they have to go put gas during their shift.
Its traffic not just parking. I read the sneak up from anyother article, and NYPD like all cops do like having cars that sneak up on you. More than twice the mileage than the crown vics they are replacing uses. The volt should be much more efficient in this role. So 2 gallons a day plus half the additional should be the minimum saved. So if a police car normally used 10 gallons of gas a day, I would expect a volt to use 3 or 4. NYC is not paying the extra money for this the difference in price is being paid for by grants from NYPA (state) and DOT (federal). The charging stations are from a DOE (federal) grant. Part of the reason for the cars is to educate the public about PHEVs and BEVs.
Why do they need 3,800 lbs vehicle to give parking tickets? It must be a great business that generates a lot of profit. Tax payers are paying $7,500 per Volt. I still see those around (probably with motorcycle engine). They are being replaced with Prius to cut down on gas consumption and emission. Now, Volt is just overkill so that they can have donuts and coffee with the AC blasting?
No they don't. They are plug in parallel hybrids, same as the plug-in Prius coming out. Why do people still believe the GM hype on this car? Well, anyway, these folks probably won't be going over 70 mph, so the ICE won't directly drive the wheels ever. But you get my point. Anyway, government agencies spending domestic tax payer dollars have an obligation to buy American whenever feasible - regardless of the quality. So there you go.
Wow, no inflamitory fake indignation here. State and Federal Tax payers are paying the entire difference between the volt and a Crown Vic, and paying for the charging station. Now how about getting mad that tesla buyers get $7500, or NYPD officers get to sit in air conditioned cars, instead of saving money and getting used metros. All of the PHEV subsidies in the next 5 years will likely be less than this years subsidy for ethanol, which is much less than subsidies each year to depreciate appreciating oil resources. Does the difference in price each year amount to anything in the nypd budget. There are over 200 hybrids in the NYPD now, all of them were paid for by tax payers. Are you mad about them or the crown vics, or the dirty cops? Wow, try some reality. I've driven a volt, and I guarantee until the battery gets to a low level the engine doesn't turn on. Whose strange descriptions have you been listening too. After the battery runs down in 25-50 miles the engine will kick on, but it is not all that noticeable, it can hook up directly to the drive train under load at speeds as low as 40. NY does some strange bad things, but this doesn't even rise to the level of hmmm.
Volt is not replacing Crown Vics but those small 3 wheelers. Using hybrid is justified because of the stop and go city traffic where the gas engine can stop to reduce fuel and emission. How is a 3,800 plugin hybrid justified?
The Volt is American Made, thus a fairly decent choice for using grant money, the Ford Fusion Hybrid would have been a better choice for American product.
Battery is from Korea. Gas engine is from Austria. Transmission is from Japan. What do you mean by American made?
Do you have a source for that? My source was the WSJ. Your information sounds made up. How is the prius, altima, transit connect, etc justified by not the volt? Do you think the altima engines run less than the volts? That seems like some really faulty reasoning caused by cognitive dissidence. I'm not sure what a 3,800 plugin is? Its your state, but it seems like a really minor use of funds compared to the waste and Fraud there.
