The Town of Bridgewater will soon have an electric vehicle join its fleet of police patrol cars — a first for Atlantic Canada.
Town council approved the purchase of a Tesla Model 3, as part of its 2022/23 capital budget, during a meeting earlier this week.
Police Chief Scott Feener said the force has been looking into buying an electric vehicle for a couple of years now, and supply issues caused by the pandemic actually pushed things along.
“With COVID and the availability of police vehicles, we’ve had issues replacing our cars — our gas fleet — in obtaining them in a timely fashion,” he explained.
According to the police service’s calculations, the cost of the Tesla will be about $69,000 plus taxes after it is properly outfitted. That should amount to just over $72,000.
The town will also look for any federal, provincial and municipal grants available to them, which would reduce the price.
The price tag is about $10,000 to $15,000 more upfront than a standard gas patrol vehicle, but Feener said police departments in other jurisdictions that already use electric vehicles have found that it saves them $5,000 per year in other expenses.
As well, it’s expected the Tesla will be in operation two years longer than a regular gas powered one.
Mayor David Mitchell called the purchase “exciting” and said while community feedback has been mostly positive, there were some concerns about the initial cost.
“I had a number of people say, ‘Why would you buy a $150,000 car?’ Well, it’s not. It’s not even half that. So if you if you think of Teslas from five years ago, they only had a couple of models. They were very high end, very niche, (had) reliability issues. We are not buying that car,” he said.
“We’re buying a the smaller Model 3 long range. Our police department have done their research, they’ve done their homework, they’ve spoken to other departments, as chief said. And so once you explain that, I think people are quite excited.”
He added it’s hoped the vehicle, and the interest it has garnered, will act as a community outreach tool.
“I see this vehicle as having a large role to play in that because these youth are going to want to check this thing out. And, you know, I think you can put a dollar value on that. So I think I just I don’t want to lose sight of that. I think that’s a really cool,” Mitchell said.
While other police forces in Canada, including Vancouver, have multiple electric vehicles in their fleet, Bridgewater will be one of the rare jurisdictions that will use it as a regular patrol car.
Feener said the town’s size and the police force’s workload make it possible.
“We’re 30 square miles. You know, we’re five minutes from the office at any given point and we’re back if need be. I wouldn’t want to be outside the rural town hundreds of miles away, looking for a place just to obtain a charger,” he said.
“We’ve looked at our workloads and our driving history over our 12 hour shifts and how many kilometers we’re actually putting on it and the runtime, etc. So this type of vehicle certainly feature fits our needs.”
Feener said the order for the vehicle was made within a day of council’s approval, and they are expecting delivery in April.
“Hopefully, that will be on the road early spring,” he said.
The chief and mayor estimate there are about four charging stations in town with more to come, including one that will be installed at the police station.
As for who will be driving the new Tesla, Feener expects a long list of volunteers.
“It’s definitely a buzz around the office,” he said.
“We’re going to spread it out and it’s going to be used for a variety of roles and positions. Or, you know, whether it’s a traffic car one day in a patrol car the next day, you know, it’s it’s definitely going to be the community be visible.”
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