Hampshire Police to drive an all-electric fleet of BMW i3
The force in Hampshire has got the go to electrify its entire fleet and their exemplary effort has already started. The first 2 of a total of 40 electric cars, in this case all BMW i3, have already arrived and found instand favour among the boys and girls in blue.
In a press release, the Hampshire police says: “We are the first non-metropolitan police force in the country to make the ground breaking change and will result in an initial £450,000 saving over three years.” The latter factors in savings through the UK’s Plug-In Grant.
For now, the plan is to introduce 40 new electric cars into the general fleet, which is made up of pool cars and cars used by investigation teams. At this time the case has not been made for replacing response cars but the idea is for the force to move towards having a 50/50 split in the future.
The decision to replace most of the fleet with electric vehicles had been driven by the Hampshire Constabulary and they believe their initiative could “revolutionise police fleets across the UK, saving millions of pounds,” whilst making sense both environmentally as well economically, the press release states.
The decision to go with the BMW i3 was also down to the range extender as obviously a police car needs to be ready any time. Additionally, some of the money saved by switching to electric cars will be reinvested into charging infrastructure. Says the police: “A small proportion of the initial £450,000 saving will fund the upfront cost of having to install more charging points at Southampton, Basingstoke and Portsmouth stations, but once in place, these will have a lifespan well in excess of 10 years.”
Hampshire is not alone in their endeavour to electrify the UK in the official sense. London’s Scotland Yard took delivery of Toyota Mirai fuel cell cars recently for example.
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