Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept gets a steal of a deal on MINI E lease
MINI E- Click above for high-res image gallery
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) is getting in on BMW's MINI E action in a big way. The LA County Board of Supervisors have given their approval to a deal that will see a squadron of 17 of the AC Propulsion-electrified retro-cutes join the force as part of the testing program now underway. While we believe any firearms present during negotiations remained holstered, the boys in brown bagged a steal of a deal and will pay only $10 per month per car. Mere mortals in the year-long program are being asked to shell out $850 per month.
If you live in LA county,
Gallery: MINI E
[Source: KTLA]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
GoRealSlow 8:36AM (6/18/2009)
It'd be interesting to get a followup at the end to see how many miles were put on these.
I kinda doubt they'll be used for much beyond events for PR.
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Tim 9:05AM (6/18/2009)
The fact is that police cars spend 99% of their time sitting while directing traffic, at road construction sites, running radar for a pursuit car, etc. Many police departments are even changing their policies to deploy police to specific locations to wait for dispatch instead of driving around on patrol.
Police idol their powerful engines for hours on end just to run the alternator for "hotel loads" such as lights, radio, air, heat etc. These engines weren't designed for this. It's hard on them, wastes a lot of fuel and puts out unnecessary pollution.
Plus high powered pursuit cars are less important these days due to radios, helicopters, and the sheer number of police that can set up road blocks etc.
A LARGE number of police duties can be handled better, cheaper and more efficiently with smaller electric cars or even E-REVs which could use the bigger battery for "hotel loads".
When necessary, an officer in their electric patrol could simply call in pursuit car backup.
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GoRealSlow 9:51AM (6/18/2009)
Thank you for your insight and statistics. You're in LE then?
Tim 11:24AM (6/18/2009)
No, I don't live in LA. I'm simply applying logic.
Chris 8:23PM (6/18/2009)
Law enforcement agencies have been using the CVPI for over 15 years now with minimal problems. It's not the ideal car but it get's the job done. They will last over 150,000 miles if maintained properly. I do agree that running the engine for hours is detrimental to the environment but the modular V8's are built like tanks.
About the Mini E's? Waste of time and money. Just buy a hybrid or a normal Ford Fusion.They need to let the public have these cars.