Photo: Max Toozs-Hobson

Tesla vehicles are actively attracting the attention of various police departments around the world, so the manufacturer has created an emergency response Model 3, which is now being tested by the police in the UK. Recently, the first test results were released, indicating that the vehicle does the job perfectly in the field and brings significant savings.

In June 2021, it became known that Tesla had designed a Model 3 test vehicle to assist emergency responders as part of the Road to Zero emission reduction program in the UK. The vehicle was handed over for testing at the Roads Policing Unit in Surrey, UK. Now, Account Manager & Emergency Services Lead at Tesla, Max Toozs-Hobson, has shared the first test results of this vehicle via LinkedIn.

According to Toozs-Hobson, Tesla Model 3 is already 9 months into trials with the police. He said that during this time, the team is getting great results and also wrote what was already learned:

• It's achievable to do over 200 miles of Blue Light advance driving with the Model 3. The average blue light run in the UK is about 7-15 minutes. The longest run in our cars has been over 4 hours on active deployment under advanced driving conditions...
• The auxiliary systems have minimal impact on range, ANPR for 3 hours would take less than a few mile of range off the car. LED lights could run for days off the battery pack.
• Chill mode & speed limiting allows the cars to be limited, allowing the possibility for split crews to drive the car on shift allowing for all officers to utilize the car.
• Light bars are like running with a parachute! Integrating lights into the car cabin does not affect our drag coefficientcy and requires no holes to be drilled into the roof which has negative affect on the cars residual values.
• Charging on shift works! last week I joined a traffic unit who got into the car with just 80 miles of range. We stopped at a V3 Supercharger and gained 70% power in less than 20 minutes. This gave us another 5-6 hours of driving for the shift. Plus this fill up cost less than £20.
• Public response to seeing our active units has been mind blowing, the press articles have been positive as well. As an engagement tool we're seeing incredible results.
• With integrated USB C power ports officers can power their laptops whilst at scene or charging. The wireless charging pad as also come in handy!
• Brakes wear has been minimal, after 10,000 miles of driving the first set of pads still had 15-20% use still in them. Tires are the same as I.C.Es and need replacing at around 8,000 miles.
• After 15,000 miles the only maintenance has been brakes and tires, no annual service schedules mean minimal running costs, time off the road and competitive total cost of ownership.
• Tesla software updates and systems offer new ways to police, the ability to send directions to the car via systems such as what3words and Google maps will allow control rooms to send direct directions to a job. Dash cam, GPS tracking & App access offer unique potential to our cars as well.
• Our delivery lead times and body shop offer industry leading deployment for forces to deploy new units and repair.

© 2021, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.

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Article edited by @SmokeyShorts, you can follow him on Twitter

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