back to article London cops trial 'leccy patrol cars

'Scarper, lads, it's the e-filf...' Knacker of the Yard today announced that half of the Metropolitan Police Service's cars could – and we note the use of the word 'could' - be electrically powered within four years. The Met's fleet currently numbers around 5000 vehicles - both marked and unmarked – including a large number …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Great.

    If you are being followed by police, just drive onto a motorway and they won't have the speed or range to keep up.

  2. Andrew Barratt
    IT Angle

    Don't switch the lights and siren on ....

    we need the extra 3bhp to catch that cyclist!

  3. Angus Nicolson
    Coat

    Hydrogen powered post delivery vans

    Electric Police cars are just so yesterday.

    http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/environment/display.var.2503967.0.Hydrogenfuelled_post_van_bid.php

  4. Martin Lyne

    Er,,

    Picture, police car, better get your lawyers ready.. TERRORIST.

    Or at least prepare for a sound beating..

  5. Tom Smith Silver badge
    Happy

    Police Smart cars

    I've spotted a (presumably petrol powered) Police Smart car just south of Bristol. I'm not sure how they expect to pull anyone over in it, I'd be too busy laughing at them :)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Am I the only one....

    ...that thinks the ranges are *ahem* not stricly true?

    Let me guess, constant speed in the dry on the flat?

    What about pissing down, at night, with the window demisters running, sound system on, charging you sat nav and mobile, whilst going uphill + in this case with the blues and twos on.

    Down to 30 miles now?

  7. Wortel
    Joke

    Compressed air?

    Hot air, surely.

  8. Gary F
    Alert

    Wrong headline...

    It should be "Police double their carbon emissions". That's right, electricity taken off the national grid generates twice as much CO2 than a petrol engine producing the same amount of power, Kw for Kw.

    Don't believe me? Take a look at the official Government and industry figures on how much CO2 is produced to generate 1 Kw of power by the national grid vs petrol engine here: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/envrp/pdf/ghg-cf-guidelines-annexes2008.pdf

    I will keep banging on about the white elephant of electric cars that run off mains electricity being "green" until the press wake up and look at the facts instead of believing whatever PR people tell them.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    compressed air cars

    Not very crypic - you've even reported on it yourselves:

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/14/air_car_tata_deal_imminent_breakthrough_foretold/print.html

  10. Paul
    Thumb Up

    Baah

    I hope the cars electrocute the bastards in the rain.

  11. b
    Go

    will they be running anyone over in these?!

    actually what with them being a helluva lot quiter than the infernal combustion variety, probably!

    i can't see one of these screaming up the M1 after some armed bank robbers..but, as long as they turned the here-i-come sirens off!, could sneak up on crimbo's more easily?!

    guess they could use a lightning or a tesla for those sorts of chases???

    seriously any move to leccy ve-hickles is to be praised!

    down with the oil pigs! :D

    cheers,

    bill

    p.s. stuff and nonsense: http://www.eupeople.net/forum

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Starskey and Hutch colours please

    But I doubt the battery will be powerful enough for it to crash through a pile of empty cardboard boxes.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Do they come...

    ... fitted with an extension lead for their tasers?

  14. Daniel Bennett
    Coat

    Slight Flaw...

    Nee noorr nee norr neee nooroooorrorrrororrrr...... *silence* ... "Oh F**K, Ran out of leccy!" & Robbers get away......

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pity the Post Office isn't doing it.

    All things considered, one wonders why central London Royal Mail, UPS, TNT et al. don't do the same think, electric vans can do a lot more than 70 miles on a charge, and don't attract congestion charge either.

    Or those loonies in the black MPVs who seem to think they are driving SPVs.

  16. Dale
    Joke

    Bus

    I'm cheering for electric bendy buses. Not only can they squish cyclists into the railings, but they can sneak up behind cyclists and then squish them into the railings.

  17. Mike Moyle
    Dead Vulture

    Ah, crap...!

    Like police really NEED another reason to get testy, let's embarrass them in front of their fellow cops and everybody by making them drive around in an electric jellybean-car that the average mall rent-a-cop wouldn't be seen dead in...!

    Tombstone icon because, well... cranky cops'll do that to ya...

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    context

    The idea of electric smart cars does seem to be quite reasonable. The Toyta is more of a questionable beast overall. For many duties a small vehicle is perfectly good and many of them could very well be electric. The police does after all have quite a few small vehicles such as the Ford Ka etc so apparantly space is not always a huge problem, remember that we also have police on bikes etc. I do not think that all police vehicles should be electric - but certainly many of the smaller city once could be. About running out of fuel - it is not exactly unheard of that police manage to run out of fuel using a normal petrol engined car - so no news there - not paying attention to your fuel gauge will do that to you no matter what fuel you use.

    That the Royal Mail does not use electric vehicles is a great mystery to me. As post companies all over the world have succesfully used electric vehicles for more than ten year now. These organisations have especially good opportunities to use electric cars as so much of their vehicle usage is so predictable.

    City buses all over Europe have been using gas for many years succesfully and it never stops amazing me that this has barely been noticed at all in most UK cities. In many European cities also city taxis are running on gas - quite succesfully - so why is it so unusual in the UK? Never mind...

  19. Aaron

    Why?

    Why bother? Just give them bikes and while you at it give them a postbag and let them do some deliveries on their rounds. Mind you, I've seen more reassuring Royal Mail vans.

  20. John Smith Gold badge
    Joke

    Powered by a new green electricity source

    Convert all police gyms to hamster wheel / bike powered generators.

    Charge batteries.

    This needs a playmobile

  21. raving angry loony

    wrong vehicle

    They'd be better off with issuing electric off-road motorbikes. More likely to actually be able to get somewhere in time to catch the thieving scum, rather than stuck in traffic near a kebab shop.

    If I was able to ride year-round in London, so can they.

  22. Michael
    Happy

    Where do the perps go?

    Boot must be a bit cramped!!!!....Needs a roof rack

  23. Stan Wellaway
    Thumb Up

    Electric Transits are not rare

    Check out the Case Studies page at SmithElectricVehicles.com for examples of hundreds of electric vans in use by dozens of fleet owners. Many of them are Ford Transit based. Just what the police are looking for. Bring it on.

  24. Giles Jones Gold badge

    Look not listen

    Why do people complain about electric cars not making a noise?

    You're supposed to look not listen when you cross the road. If you listen then you'll most likely step out in front of a cyclist as well as some of us cyclists are doing 20+MPH.

    Those who don't look deserve to be taken out of the gene pool.

  25. John Smith Gold badge
    Joke

    @Dale

    "I'm cheering for electric bendy buses. "

    But Bozzer the Turk has sworn death to the bendy bus.

    You're not a Londoner I guess?

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