As more cities and regions around the globe look to transition to low carbon, the popularity of electric vehicles continues to increase, and several European police forces are using the HYundai’s EVs for their vehicle fleets.
Police in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy are all using Hyundai EVs and the company’s other zero-emission, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV), the company says.
And its fully electric SUV Kona Electric and its second-generation FCEV NEXO are particularly popular among European police forces, helping to reduce inner city noise and air pollution.
“The popularity of Hyundai’s zero emission vehicles among police fleets in Europe is a testament to the vehicles’ quality and versatility,” said Andreas Christoph-VP of marketing and products at Hyundai Motors Europe.
“The fact that our eco-friendly vehicles are able to meet the needs of civilians and civil servants alike shows that our products can help making streets safer as well as cleaner.”
The SUV Kona Electric is used in police fleets in countries such as Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. The police force of the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland, for example, added 13 Kona Electric models to their fleet a year ago – five as police cars and eight as civilian vehicles.
Importantly, the Kona Electric was the only electric vehicle on offer that met the St. Gallen police force’s stringent requirements – over 100kW power, over 400km range, availability, and an acquisition cost below CHF50,000 ($A80,000).
Meanwhile, moving north, police forces in the Netherlands’ capital of Amsterdam and the regions of East Netherlands and Central Netherlands are currently testing the suitability of the Kona Electric for their police fleet needs.
And, as we saw recently in the English county of Gloucestershire, electric vehicles can also provide tactical benefits. Specifically, the Gloucestershire Constabulary’s Rural Crime Team announced in late-April that it had used its Nissan LEAFs in an anti-poaching operation, pointing to the vehicles’ silent running as a valuable asset in their hunt for illegal poachers.
Hyundai’s Kona Electric can also be found in police fleets in Valencia, Spain; in the UK in the police fleets of both the Sussex Police and North Wales Police; and, remaining in the UK, the Hampshire Police have recently ordered nine Kona Electric models for their fleet of police vehicles, which will be delivered early June.
Similarly, Hyundai’s second-generation fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV), the NEXO, is being used by police forces in England and Germany. The Surrey Police force in the south east of England has one NEXO in their fleet, while the police force in Osnabrück, Germany, also have a NEXO in their fleet.
In Italy, in the city of Bolzano in the country’s north, police are using the NEXO’s predecessor, the ix35 Fuel Cell, as a patrol car, and recently added a fleet of NEXO to patrol emissions-free on the polluted Brenner Autostrada.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.