Cop cars are known for being cheap to buy, cheap to run, run hard, and put away wet. So why has the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office splurged on a not-so-cheap Tesla Model Y? Fuel costs, says Elektrek. They believe that in 6-18 months, the savings in gas will offset the additional cost of purchasing the car.

There’s a lot to that. Police cars run almost constantly, and burn a ton of fuel just idling. I mean, who’s going to steal them? An electric car completely eliminates this waste. It also has at least as good, if not better acceleration than the Explorers, Chargers, etc. currently in service. Finally, police run an insane amount of electrical equipment. All those flashing lights, sirens, radios, computers, radar, and other stuff sucks down a lot of power. Traditional cruisers get upgraded alternators to keep up with the demand. An electric car can already supply it, straight out of the box.

We’ll have to keep an eye on this one. If Boulder County is right, we may start to see a surge in electric police cars over the next several years.