Fuel savings put New York’s Finest in hybrid squad cars
August 18, 2009 by Tom GuayPosted in: Cost Cutting, Latest News & Views, News
The thin blue line protecting New York City is getting a tinge of green, and it’s not even St. Patrick’s Day.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) is testing out a fleet of 40 Nissan Altima electric hybrids to see how they’ll perform as everyday squad cars. If all goes well, the city plans to expand its use of hybrids.
The test vehicle officially retails for about $26,000. That’s roughly $1,500 more than the standard NYPD squad car, the gasoline-powered Chevy Impala.
Despite the higher cost, NYPD says it’ll quickly recover the premium paid to go green with ample savings in fuel costs. The Impala gets 16 miles per gallon (mpg). The Altima hybrid gets 35 mpg. With more than double the fuel efficiency, NYC will take credit for greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. The cleaner-burning cars will also put a dent in the regular smog problems.
To cover the extra cost of going green, NYPD got funding help from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Energy Conservation Steering Committee, so the city avoided the Buy American requirements that would have come had they used federal stimulus money for the purchase.
The 18 marked and 22 unmarked squad cars mark the first time the city has used alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) as regular police cars.
Big differences between the Altima and Impala besides the huge fuel savings? Less room in the car, so poor old suspects will be a bit crowded when they take their ride downtown. Officers have also reported tighter quarters and complain that their side arms can snag on the seats when they exit the vehicle. See New York Times photo here.
The NYPD has tested various AFVs over the years. It currently uses hybrid vehicles and electric scooters for parking enforcement. It has 10 GMC Yukon Hybrid SUVs in the fleet for special uses.
Note: A recent survey echoes NYPD’s fuel savings expectation — that more efficient hybrid vehicles more than pay for themselves. Click here.
NYPD’s test of Altima hybrids is described in the magazine, Police, click here.
The NYPD press announcement is here.
Tags: hybrid, Nissan Altima, NYPD
GreenandMore.com
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August 19th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Let’s see here… we buy Japanese hybrids with city funds. We can’t use Federal funds because the hybrids are Japanese. What about Chevy Malibu or Ford Escape hybrids? Wake up NYC!
September 24th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I’ll echo FredP’s response. Seems to me that a Ford Fusion hybrid would serve as well as the Nissan. I recently bought an 07 gas model for my daughter. It seems to have as much room as the Impala I looked at. I also have an 07 Ford Escape hybrid in my work fleet that works well. It has over 50k miles with normal maintenance. I’m looking at requesting additional Ford hybrids for our fleet.
This country needs to look hard at what we Americans are producing here and now. I think a lot of people are still in an “imports are a better buy” mentality that is not actually true in today’s market. Let’s keep our hard earned tax dollars here at home.