You’re not going to see Ford Mustang Mach-E police cars in your rear view mirror next week. But in the future, you could.
The Michigan State Police have pretty much established the standard when it comes to testing cars for police use. They put cars through grueling acceleration, top speed, braking, high-speed pursuit, and emergency response handling tests. This is where the Dodge Intrepid’s brakes were found to be not up to the task, catching fire in the process. The Ford Mustang Mach-E, though, passed all these tests with flying colors — the first electric car ever to do so.
It didn’t even have a cop motor, cop suspension, cop shocks… Ford submitted a bone stock example for testing. The only modification was stickers (which, arguably, do add horsepower). We won’t know exactly how the Mustang Mach-E stacks up against traditional police cars like the Ford Explorer, Dodge Charger, etc. until later this fall, when the Michigan State Police will publish test results for all cars they’ve tested during the past year.
According to Motor1.com, Ford does not currently intend to build a police version of the Mustang Mach-E. Seeing how well the regular version did in these tests establishes a baseline for its performance. I expect that when the full test results come out, Ford will see in what areas other cars beat them, then design improvements that will address those shortcomings.
Electric cars, in general, make a ton of sense when it comes to police use. Most of the time they sit around, idling, wasting gas. Electric cars, by their nature, don’t do that. They also have a massive battery, which is necessary to run all the lights, computers, radios, and other emergency equipment. Additionally, when it comes time for hot pursuit of them Duke boys, there’s nothing quite like the acceleration of an electric car. Tesla’s made it famous, but all electric motors generate maximum torque from zero RPM, making them quicker off the line than any fossil fuel car can be.
It’s an intriguing concept. The only issue is with departments that keep their cars on the road 24/7, rotating multiple officers through them as they go on and off their shifts. That doesn’t leave any time to recharge.
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