Denmark’s National Police has given the green light to a switch to EV patrol cars in all districts after a successful trial.
Four Danish police districts have successfully trialled using electric vehicles as patrol cars, with the switch now set to be rolled out nationally, the National Police announced in a statement on Monday.
Some 300,000 kilometres of patrols in police EVs formed the trial which was the basis for the decision.
The decision will increase the cost to the taxpayer, however, because police vehicles are exempted from the road taxes which make EVs cheaper to run for private individuals than diesel vehicles (because EVs get tax deductions).
The cost of implementing chargers and other infrastructure will also add to the cost of switching to police EVs.
Advertisement
“Experience from the pilot project indicates that electric vehicles are cheaper to operate than standard patrol cars, meaning that some of the additional cost is offset by savings,” Police Inspector Jens Yndgaard said in the statement.
“That said, the transition to electric patrol vehicles clearly comes at a noticeable price,” he added.
During a trial period of just over a year, ten Volkswagen ID.4s were used for patrol duties by Central and West Jutland, East Jutland, Copenhagen Police and Copenhagen West police districts. In total, the vehicles covered 300,000 kilometres on patrol.
The trial showed that range limitations and other concerns that may have existed do not pose any significant problem.
