Oakwood buys EV police cruiser as exploratory vehicle

But the Blazer will not be ready for full law enforcement use until it is equipped with special features, likely early next year, Hill said.

“Obviously, EVs have become more and more popular over time to the point you now have a legacy manufacturer such as Chevrolet that is actually making a police patrol vehicle that is an all-electric vehicle,” Hill said.

Credit: CONTRIBUTED/GM

Credit: CONTRIBUTED/GM

“And I think it’s an avenue that we wanted to explore to see if it would be a good fit for Oakwood.”

Hill said the city wants to see if maintenance on police EV cruisers would be more efficient than gas-powered ones.

“The charging pattern is going to be different,” he said. “The daily use is going to be different. So, we’re truly going to have to evaluate the vehicle over time — over an extended period of time — to ultimately know if this is going to be the right vehicle for us.”

Oakwood has an EV charging station at its city garage, Hill said.

The department commonly replaces police cruisers every seven to eight years, when they typically have about 115,000 to 125,000 miles on them, Hill said.

The southeast Ohio city of Logan has purchased electric vehicles to use as patrol cruisers, according to published reports.

Earlier this year, the Los Angeles suburb of South Pasadena became the first in the nation to totally replace its police patrol cars with electric vehicles, according to the Associated Press.

What Oakwood Mayor Bill Duncan called “a true police vehicle,” the Blazer EV PPV combines “police-specific engineering with the power and capability of EVs,” according to General Motors’ website.

The model has a projected top speed of 130 miles per hour without “emergency aftermarket equipment,” according to GM.

Its price starts at about $49,000, according to Kelley Blue Book. But “fully outfitted” for law enforcement, the cost is expected to be about $75,000, Hill said.

Oakwood ordered the vehicle about a year ago, Hill and Duncan said. But due to delays in getting the model produced, many manufactures for the “upfitting” equipment for law enforcement use was on back order, Hill said.