Volkswagen e-Golf Prepares For Police Duty

City governments are some of the biggest consumers of fossil fuels, with police fleets guzzling more than their fair share of fuel. This has many municipalities embracing hybrid and electric police vehicles as a means to offset the cost of gasoline, and the Volkswagen e-Golf is ready to report for duty…at least in its home country of Germany.

At the General Police Equipment Exhibition, Volkswagen revealed its police-spec e-Golf, which may not be pursuit-rated, but for urban patrolling it’s the perfect vehicle, reports AutoWeek. Quiet enough to sneak up on perps but quick enough to get the jump on would-be speeders, the 70 to 90 miles of estimated driving range covers most of the average patrol shift. Plus there’s the advantage of plugging in overnight vs. refilling the gas tank means big cost savings for the parent government, which is why the Berlin city government has been busy integrating different hybrid and electric vehicles into its fleet.

To its credit, Volkswagen has done its best to make driving the e-Golf as familiar feeling as driving a regular Golf (which you can read more about in our test drive), a car which has found widespread use especially among European police departments. No details on how the lightbar or extra communications equipment might affect range, but probably not by much (if any). Here in America meanwhile, many police departments are looking to plug-in hybrids like the Ford Fusion Energi as a means to save fuel across what tend to be wider patrol areas. There are numerous advantages to electrifying police fleets, and over the lifetime of the vehicle fuel savings can amount to thousands of dollars each.

Some police departments have already embraced electric vehicles, including tech-savvy Atherton, which wants a couple of Model S patrol cars on staff. Not every department can afford $70,000+ patrol vehicles though, and with the Volkswagen e-Golf coming in at about half the price, it might be a better stepping stone to a fully-electric police fleet.

Source: Gas 2.