A police chief who lobbied to electrify his department’s patrol cars with Tesla Model 3 vehicles now says EVs could pay for themselves in less than 2 years.
Last year, we reported on the Bargersville, Indiana police department, which was updating its fleet with Tesla Model 3 vehicles.
Bargersville Police Chief Todd Bertram commented at the time:
Obviously two important things we were looking at when buying cars were cost and performance. Many times when you get a car that is in our cost price range, you sacrifice performance. With Tesla, performance is better than the cars we drive today. It’s amazing, it’s smooth, it’s powerful, it handles very well.
The Model 3 was replacing the Dodge Chargers, so performance won’t be an issue.
As for cost, Tesla also has a significant advantage. The Model 3 Standard Range Plus version they bought is slightly more expensive than the Dodge Charger at ~ $ 41,000, but they expect fuel savings of about $ 6,000 per year, which means the Model 3 will pay for itself during its useful life.
They typically keep their vehicles for six years and after breaking down the economy, they determined that they are going to save around $ 20,000 per car with the Model 3.
It includes not only gas savings, but the police department also expects some significant maintenance savings.
They expected electric vehicles to pay for themselves in about 2 years.
After having the vehicles for a few months, Bertram now believes that the return on investment can happen as fast as 19 months.
He wrote on Twitter yesterday:
Best. I think the breakeven point will be more like 19 months instead of 24 as we planned before
– Todd Bertram (@ ToddBertram1) June 29, 2020
It’s a good 20% faster than the originally expected timeline, which was already aggressive.
The Bargersville, Indiana police department purchased its first 5 Model 3 vehicles last year, but they are expected to continue updating their fleet.
At this point, there are about a dozen police departments that go electric with Tesla vehicles.
In Tesla’s own backyard, the Fremont Police Department converted a used Tesla Model S into a patrol vehicle.
Luxembourg Police converted two Model S sedans into patrol boats, and the largest fleet of Tesla Police patrols is located in Switzerland.
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That is an impressive return on investment.
Of course, it’s that fast because police officers drive a lot and accumulate a lot of mileage quickly, but that’s also the case for many other commercial vehicles.
Other fleet managers should definitely consider electric vehicles and Model 3 in particular when updating their fleets.
I think many of them would be surprised to run the numbers.
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