Tesla police vehicles now going on patrol in Luxembourg

While Tesla’s electric vehicles have become increasingly popular lately with police departments around the world, they are rarely used as patrol cars, but not in Luxembourg where two Model S sedans are now being used as police patrol cars.

We first reported on the Luxembourg police’s plan to use Tesla Model S vehicles last year, but the plan stalled for months as the new vehicles were awaiting regulatory approval.

Luxembourg regulators took a long time to approve the vehicles. There were apparently problems with the new light systems and they had yet to complete high-speed tests, which were later performed at a test track in Germany.

The Model S vehicles needed to be tested at 250 km/h (155 mph), which is the top speed of the performance versions of the Model S. It shouldn’t be a problem to reach it, but sustaining it for a long period of time is going to be an issue. It’s not clear what the nature of the test is other than achieving the top speed.

The two vehicles are now in operation as of last week, according to Luxemburger Wort – images by Christophe Olinger:

One of the vehicles is used “a motorway patrol vehicle” and the other is used as part of the “Service Escortes et Contrôles (SEC)” fleet, which performs police escort duties.

The department has trained 8 officers to use the Tesla vehicle.

Luxembourg is actually a great region to use electric vehicles for services.

In terms of range, the country is ideal for electric cars since it’s only 82 km (51 miles) long and 57 km (35 miles) wide. As for speed and acceleration, virtually all of the latest versions of Tesla’s Model S are now quicker and faster than conventional police cars, so it shouldn’t be a problem on that front.

As we previously reported, Tesla vehicles are becoming strangely popular with police departments all over the world and while the Model S has so far been the electric car of choice for police use, the Model X is also starting to get some love from the police.

Ontario Provincial Police got a Model X and Swiss Police replaced diesel cruisers with 7 Tesla Model X 100Ds.

In the US, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Denver Police Department are both using Model S sedans as part of their fleets.

In Europe, Scotland Yard says that it is considering the vehicle as a police cruiser.