Police fleets across the US could soon switch their Ford Explorer-based squad cars for fully-electric Mustang Mach-Es, if a pilot scheme in Michigan goes the way Ford hopes.
The Ford Motor Company, which plans to invest $30 billion in the electrification of its vehicles up to 2025, launched its all-electric Mustang Mach-E in 2020. The plug in SUV will soon be joined by the upcoming F-150 Lightning.
Having been on the market since 2020, Ford is now investigating new uses for its electrically-charged Mustang, including as a next-generation law enforcement vehicle.
To demonstrate the Mach-E’s capabilities, Ford submitted a pilot vehicle for testing as part of the Michigan State Police 2022 Model Year Police Evaluation.
The pilot scheme ended earlier this week and was aimed at evaluating potential uses for a squad car based on the 2021 Mustang Mach-E SUV.
Ford says it will use the program testing as a benchmark “while it continues to explore purpose-built electric police vehicles in the future”.
The US trial of the Mustang Mach-E police car follows a similar project in the UK, where a concept vehicle was recently unveiled for police forces to test.
In the UK, law enforcement vehicle converter Safeguard SVP created a full ‘blue light livery’ test car in order to attract “UK police forces looking for greener solutions”.
The concept cop car is based on the all-wheel-drive Mustang Mach-E Standard Range, which can cover 211 miles on a single charge.
Despite the added crime-fighting accessories, such as sirens and flashing lights, Safeguard SVP says the range of the all-electric concept car has not been impacted.
“The vehicle range is uncompromised as the blue light equipment is being drawn from the vehicle’s 12V battery and not the drive battery,” says Terry Adams, blue light direct sales manager, Ford of Britain and Ireland.
“In future developments we will look to increase this battery capacity to allow for additional equipment to be fitted.”
So far, London’s Metropolitan Police Force has already appraised the standard Mustang Mach-E, and wants to trial the concept.
Forces in Scotland, Wales and other English counties have also expressed an interest in the all-electric cop car.