First in North America | The patrol car of the future in Repentigny

The Repentigny police are testing the first electric police car intended for responding to emergency calls in North America, which is attracting the interest of other police forces in the country and in the United States. The Press boarded.

(Repentigny) Officer Dimitri Milonas activates the flashing lights and sets off in pursuit of the car which has just passed in front of him at 76 km/h, in a zone limited to 50.

The car accelerates very quickly… in complete silence.

Welcome to North America’s first all-electric emergency call response police vehicle; a Ford Mach-E transformed for the needs of the Service de police de la Ville de Repentigny (SPVR).

Electric vehicles are already used by many police forces, but only for functions other than responding to emergency calls, whether for investigators, senior officers or social and community services.

“Me, I love the vehicle,” says Dimitri Milonas, one of 15 officers trained to use the car as part of the one-year pilot project, launched in June.

“I feel it’s safer, it holds the road better,” he explains, acknowledging that he himself had some apprehensions before starting to use it.

“Will I be able to do my shift full, winter? Will it be powerful enough to pick up the vehicle forward? wondered the policeman who has 23 years of experience and drove the illustrious Ford Crown Victoria at the start of his career.

But the vehicle seduced him from the training day.

“When accelerating, it was five, six vehicle distances ahead of the Dodge Charger” – a very common vehicle in North American police force fleets – he enthuses, adding that the advantage was similar to braking.

“No issue” of autonomy

Dimitri Milonas is full of praise for the electric police car, which was fitted out to measure by the Quebec company Cyberkar, a specialist in the field: storage box for long weapons, partition to isolate the defendants and anti-ballistic plate under the hood, to compensate for the absence of an engine block, in particular.

The exercise was also an opportunity to rethink the image of the cars; the Mach-E is inspired by the colors of European police vehicles, pale blue with yellow chevrons, for more visibility.

The police applications have been integrated into the on-board computer and are accessible via the integrated screen, avoiding the addition of an additional computer.

The only pitfalls encountered so far are computer and ergonomic “issues”; none affecting the mode of electric propulsion, indicates Chief Inspector Jean-Claude Roch.

The vehicle never used more than 52% of the battery charge over a full shift, says Roch, who says he instructed his police officers to use it like any other vehicle, bluntly.

The “real test” is coming

During the first phase of the pilot project, the patrol car was used during one work shift out of two; it is now two shifts out of three, day and evening; then from January, it will be used on the three working shifts of the day.

Refills are done during meal breaks, when writing reports at the workstation and when changing shifts, which is more than enough so far.

“I can’t wait to see what it will be like in winter,” said Dimitri Milonas, who was not worried about what he described as a “real test” for the car.

Jean-Claude Roch expects the winter cold to affect the vehicle’s range less, since it will be used almost constantly, so the battery will never completely cool.

“We think she’s going to retain her energy a lot more,” he said.

Significant savings

The Mach-E should generate savings of at least 15% over four years of use compared to a Dodge Charger combustion patrol car, calculates the SPVR.

“And we are very conservative,” insists Jean-Claude Roch, pointing out that the assessment was made when a liter of gasoline was selling for $1.17, and that it does not take maintenance costs into account, so unknown, but which promise to be weaker for the electric vehicle.

The experience aroused the interest of many police forces, and not the least: the Ontario Provincial Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Montreal police, the Sûreté du Québec and even the New York police. are interested, among others.

“I meet almost every month,” says Jean-Claude Roch.

The Ford manufacturer has even obtained the “police pack” certificate for its Mach-E, required by many police forces [voir encadré]following the launch of the SPVR pilot project, paving the way for widespread use of this vehicle by law enforcement.