Tesla Model 3 gets the nod from police over cost and performance, bye-bye Dodge Charger

The Bargersville, Indiana, Police Department is updating its fleet to Tesla Model 3s after they figured out that they will save a lot of money on gas, and that the Tesla Model 3s don’t compromise performance compared to the Dodge Chargers.

We are starting to see Tesla vehicles becoming quite popular with police departments all over the world.

In Tesla’s own backyard, the Fremont Police Department converted a used Tesla Model S to a patrol vehicle.

The Luxembourg Police converted two Model S sedans to patrol cars, and the largest fleet of Tesla police patrol vehicles is in Switzerland.

At this point, there are about a dozen police departments going electric with Tesla vehicles, but we have never heard of one going with the Model 3 until now.

The Bargersville Police Department decided to go for it.

Bargersville Police Chief Todd Bertram commented:

Two big things that we were looking at when shopping for cars were obviously cost and performance. Many times when you get a car that is in our cost price range, you sacrifice performance. With Tesla, the performance is better than the cars we are currently driving. It’s amazing, it’s smooth, it’s powerful, it handles great.

The performance is not going to be an issue compared to the the Dodge Charger it is replacing. They went with a Model 3 Standard Range Plus, which is speedy, and with a range of 240 miles, it greatly exceeds the average daily mileage of a patrol car, which is between 80 miles and 120 miles per day.

Here’s a report from the local news about their first Model 3 hitting the roads today:

As for cost, Model 3 is the clear winner. The Standard Range Plus version that they bought is a little more expensive at ~$41,000, but they expect gas savings of about $6,000 per year, which means that the Model 3 will almost pay for itself over its lifetime (they expect six years as a police vehicle).

Bertram also expects significant maintenance savings with the Model 3.

They have now completed the conversion of the first Model 3 into a patrol car:

They are planning to add four more Model 3 vehicles to the fleet to replace their gas-guzzling Dodge Chargers.

The Bargersville Police Department says that it needs to hire more officers, and they plan to use all the money from the gas savings to do that.

Furthermore, they also noted other less obvious benefits, like the silent drivetrain enabling officers to more easily get the jump on people, and the Tesla app enabling them to start climate control remotely in the winter.