Tags
Fremont CA Police, Not ready for prime time, political virtue signaling, recharging time, Tesla S85, VW Vanagon Camper
During my police days, I was the victim of a bold, new experiment. The patrol vehicle I was assigned was converted to run on natural gas. The experiment was a disaster. The tank eliminated about 70% of the vehicle’s trunk space, upset the balance of the vehicle, and the performance was absolutely pathetic. I got into a pursuit with a SUV with two flat tires, and couldn’t keep up with it. We did acceleration tests, and the vehicle was substantially slower than a Volkswagon Vanagon camper, one of the slowest vehicles of its time. Worst of all, when it was cold—and this was in South Dakota—it took as much as 45 minutes to partially fill the tank. It wouldn’t fill entirely under those conditions, and I often had to refill at least twice: once about 2/3 into a shift, and at the end of the shift. It took about a year of suffering with that beast for the administration to finally get wise, but surprisingly, that mistake wasn’t repeated.
As I understand it, at least the slow filling issue with LNG vehicles has since been resolved, but acceleration, engine life, etc. issues remain, and LNG vehicles, for anything other than commercial and government use, remain uncommon.
So why bring up ancient news like that? The Fremont, CA police have discovered similar problems, but this time, with an electric patrol vehicle, as Fox News reports:
A Tesla electric patrol car with the Fremont, Calif., Police was forced to back off from a pursuit after the vehicle’s battery ran low in the middle of the chase.
‘Just slowed down to six miles of battery on the Tesla, so I may lose it here in a sec,’ the officer in the pursuit said, according to police radio transmissions obtained by KPIX 5. ‘If someone else is able, can they maneuver into the No. 1 spot?’
Other officers then took over the pursuit. The chase was called off after it was deemed unsafe because of the reckless driving of the suspect. The suspect’s vehicle was later found abandoned in San Jose.
That would be “other officers” with gas-powered patrol vehicles. But why would a law enforcement agency use EVs anyway? Oh right. Greenie political correctness:
The department is in the midst of a pilot program using 2014 Tesla model S 85 vehicles as part of Fremont’s push to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from its 2005 baseline by 2020.
‘The Tesla wasn’t fully charged at the beginning of the shift,’ a Fremont police spokesperson told KPIX 5. ‘This, unfortunately, happens from time to time, even in our vehicles that run on gas, if they aren’t refueled at the end of a shift.
What the “spokesperson” didn’t say, and considering the politics involved, dare not say, is EVs are, like LNG powered vehicles, spectacularly unsuited to law enforcement. What the spokesperson is also not saying is refilling a gas powered vehicle takes only a few minutes. EVs take hours. The issue is not just recharging time.
Police vehicles use enormous amounts of electric energy to power not only their emergency lights, but radios, computers, flashlight rechargers, and a variety of other electronic devices. Such vehicles are normally equipped with heavy-duty alternators and other electrical components, yet often have problems. In warmer climates, patrol vehicles have to run air conditioning continually to keep bullet resistant vest wearing officers functional. Wearing a vest in hot conditions is very much like walking around wearing a plastic garbage bag. In cold conditions, the heater must be constantly on. Add headlights—many LE vehicles have constant on headlights—windshield wipers, etc., and the electric drain is enormous.
California is fortunate in having a mild climate. In cold climates, EVs are impractical because cold dramatically saps battery power and increases recharging times. The colder, the more drastic the effect.
I suspect what the spokespeople would never be allowed to report is patrol vehicles probably have to be recharged at least twice during a shift: when they run low on juice during the shift, and at the end of the shift so the following shift have vehicles they can use. This is so because police driving is not sedate, low speed trolling at constant, predictable speeds, but continual bursts of acceleration. Electric motors do accelerate very rapidly, but at high energy cost. I can only imagine that poor officer accelerating after the criminal while watching his “miles remaining” readout drop like a rock.
Why is recharging a problem? Even with super duper chargers, a patrol vehicle will be out of service for two hours or more for a complete charge. Complete charges are absolutely necessary, because patrol vehicles can’t be driven for minimum battery drain. The vehicle in question was almost certainly only partially charged at the beginning of the shift because the previous shift couldn’t afford the time necessary to fully charge it. In addition, the batteries of any EV have limited lives. The more frequently they’re charged, the faster they wear out, and replacement is very, very expensive.
Police agencies are always understaffed. They can’t afford to have patrol officers sitting around, waiting for batteries to charge. Law enforcement agencies also can’t afford extra police vehicles to compensate for charging out of service vehicles. They can normally afford only the minimum number necessary to staff their shifts, with perhaps one or two extras.
EVs might be workable for detectives, crime scene technicians or administrative staff, but where patrol work is concerned, they’re not ready for prime time, and never may be. However, in California, realty is seldom allowed to intrude on political virtue signaling. If the Fremont PD officers that actually do the work were allowed to speak, they’d confirm they need reality. EVs don’t qualify.
Pre-Posting Update: Inc.com reports that the discretionary power outages in California are exposing yet another major flaw of EVs:
Second, our electrical grid is far more fragile than most of us truly understand. The fact that you can plug in a toaster and make breakfast in the morning is almost luck. It doesn’t take much to cause that luck to run out–a storm, a power surge, or a branch falling on a power line. Or, apparently, a utility with such outdated equipment that the only way it can be sure it won’t start a wildfire that could burn down most of California is to just shut everything off for a few days.
But just because it’s a little windy in the Bay Area, people still need to go to work, still need to make lunches before sending their kids off to school, and still need to do all of the other things they would normally do. No one is evacuating. Which, I guess is a good thing since they’d only get a few hundred miles before their Teslas all run out of juice.
This is true, of course, for all EVs. Californians are also discovering that the wonder of solar power isn’t quite as wondrous as they thought. Roof mounted solar panels on homes do not supply power directly to those homes, but to the electric grid, so when the power is shut down, solar powered homes have no juice. Virtually none have battery backups, which are brutally expensive. Some have suggested homeowners can use their EV battery packs to power a home, but not only are EV batteries incompatible to the task, if they were, home usage would drain an EVs battery pack even more quickly than driving would, and if there’s no electricity to power the house, there’s no electricity to recharge an EV to power the house.
California and EVs: the future of our nation.
Since solar panels on car roofs don’t charge fast enough, I suggest a Honda generator strapped to the roof of the “green” EV.
Dear Craig:
What, no windmill?
Craig has a point. The environmental left’s fetish with EVs is merely
an attempt to promote a perpetual motion machine, something that
cannot exist in a universe governed by the laws of physics. A PPM
cannot exist in the mechanical sense because of a simple factor
called friction. The same goes for any electrical systems which
are hobbled by mechanical resistance.
Most people do not know watts (continuous output) from watt-hours
(a measure of storage capacity.) When you consider that each horse-
power consumes about 750 watts, it all comes into focus. Elon Musk
is a modern-day Elmer Gantry. From the moment his first Tesla rolled
off the assembly line, he wildly exaggerated the range.
The recent story about the LAPD cruiser caused me to smile. The
range of a Tesla is based on ideal conditions, meaning level ground
and cruise control or a conservative driver. Even if the officer had a
full charge if he had to engage in a high-speed pursuit, that battery
would have been sucked harder than any costar in a Linda Lovelace
movie!
At least natural gas and LPG are more efficient than these coal-
powered road rollers!
PS Please tell the proponents of these modern-day Pet Rocks
to stop saying that an electric motor is capable of maximum torque
at 0 RPM. These scientific illiterates should know that any motor
at 0 RPM develops 0 torque!
Dear Leonard Jones:
Yes.
Some years ago, management had proposed that the sample collectors for the Water Quality Division be equipped with electric vehicles. On hearing about it, I pointed out to my boss that the range of these vehicles was about two thirds of the distance a sample collector drives each day.
We did not get electric vehicles.
One of my best friends is a patrol lieutenant in a city near Fremont. We were having lunch one day and were talking about this very subject. This was before anyone tried it. i extolled the electric motor’s virtue of having a virtually flat torque curve from 0 RPM to red line. It should make for a very fast pursuit vehicle. BTW, a Tesla Model S in super insaneo mode is very fast in the 1/4 mile. However, police pursuit is not a 1/4 mile race. You would have to build a suspension to match the motor’s power.
My friend listened politely, said there was one problem. They would have to have 2 cars for every one car they have today. His city runs their patrol cars 24/7. They are only taken off line for maintenance. There is almost no pause between shifts. Even fast recharge would be unacceptable. Apparently Fremont did not think this through. Of course, in most departments, the brass knows little about patrol. Must be true for Fremont.
Dear Phil:
Quite so. Virtually all patrol vehicles are run 24/7/365. If they can’t be quickly refused, they’re useless.
If you don’t mind me asking Mr Mike, where in South Dakota? I currently reside in De Smet, and yes, it does get cold here…
Dear Cederq:
I played cops and robbers is the town of my birth: Rapid City. It’s not quite as cold there as it was where I was raised in Aberdeen, but even mild winters play hob with LNG and EV vehicles.