A Lot Had to Happen to Get Us Here

The Westport Police Tesla Model 3 police cruiser is in its third week of service as of this writing. It has become an international sensation and the introductory splash doesn’t show signs of abating any time soon. The Westport Police Department is still fielding inquiries. The car will be exhibited at the New York International Auto Show from April 10 – 19. It will be seen at the Westport Maker Faire and there will be an open house and press event in April. (Update: The NY International Auto Show has been canceled for 2020. Maker Faire is canceled. The status of the open house is TBD. This is due to taking precautions regarding COVID-19.)

This post takes a look back on some of the hurdles and questions that had to be faced in order to get to this point, some of which could have scuttled the project.

Politics

Westport Police Chief, Foti Koskinas, has made it a point to thank the First Selectman Jim Marpe and town officials for their support. We want to pause here for a minute because this is not just an obligatory shout-out. Chief Foti was very clear that because of this support, he was spared jumping through bureaucratic hoops with multiple boards. The town was supportive of taking this step, knowing that they were incurring a certain level of risk. The community has ambitious goals to lower emissions and become net-zero. Town leadership understands it is time for action. The fact that there is considerable support in this environmentally-minded community also helps.

Foti told the club that he is aware of police chiefs in a number of municipalities that would like to do the same thing, but they gave up because of the process. It can be hard to overcome inertia.

Requirements

This was easy. The Tesla exceeds the minimum requirements for safety and performance.

Engineering

There were a number of challenges and questions that flow from this one word.

Would Tesla be cooperative from an engineering perspective? Without their support, the best that Westport and its vendors could hope for would be to muddle through, if it would even have been worth the trouble. Foti stated that at first there were challenges. Tesla was initially unresponsive. But they came around to embrace the project, which has obvious upside for them. Having made it through that, Foti now characterizes them as a great partner.

These are the specific tasks we are aware of:

Integrate Tesla headlights and taillights so they can be used as part of police emergency lighting. Tesla recoded for this.

Access the Sentry cameras for use as dashcam and license plate readers. Tesla worked with the WPD vendors and this is happening. The police can now avoid purchasing new cameras, which they normally have to do. And the Tesla cameras are superior.

Wire the electric accessories such as lights, siren, and radio into the 75kW battery (a.k.a. the large battery). The alternative would have been to add another 12-volt battery, an inelegant solution that could also have scuppered the project. The law enforcement accessories that are powered by the large battery have had only a de minimus impact on range.

Use the Tesla computer. This is a work in progress and the outcome is still not known. There has to be airtight security for both parties. Foti is cautiously optimistic. For now, they have installed a ruggedized tablet.

One of the questions to be addressed by the test is how well the battery holds up. Tesla has advised WPD to expect 1 – 1.5% degradation per year. Tesla is monitoring the batteries. That level of degradation would not interfere with the ability of the car to be used for many years. After 10 years, the battery would still be 85-90% of what it was on delivery.

Cost. Of course, cost.

Even though replacing a car that gets 16 MPG (on paper, anyway – in actuality, it’s lower) with a zero-emission vehicle makes all the sense in a world where climate change represents an existential threat and air pollution is responsible for thousands of deaths each year and billions in added health care costs, the town, and taxpayers, nonetheless, have to pay for it.

In the reporting at the time of the acquisition, it was noted that the cost of the Tesla was $52,290 versus $37,000 for a Ford Explorer and that the savings on fuel and maintenance would make up the differential in less than 3 years. That is all true, except it is more complicated than that.

The new Tesla actually will have cost less to acquire. “Huh?” you say.

Police cruisers require a lot of customization and that is expensive. None of the off-the-shelf parts would fit this new vehicle. This includes the wiring of the accessories into the battery, lights, gun rack, etc. The firms that Westport uses, major players in this particular market niche, are Whelen Engineering and Fleet Auto Body, the latter company doing the installation. Both of these companies provided their services to outfit the Tesla for free. It was R&D for them. And once they made that offer, it essentially eliminated any financial risk for the town, barring the car being a complete failure and having to be written off. The cost of paying for a one-off customization would have been prohibitive. It wouldn’t have happened. Going forward, the cost of the customization will have to be figured into any future purchases, though the cost will be the standard market rate for such a project. And depending upon how much of the native Tesla tech will be repurposed, these costs could be lowered significantly.

Not having to buy cameras saves around $3000. Incorporating the Tesla lights into the police emergency lights helps. If the Tesla computer can be tapped, there would be an additional savings of $3-5000, making the differential in capital costs practically disappear.

Model 3 – Going Forward

It is not uncommon for the actual performance to differ from the officially rated metrics. In the case of the Ford Explorer, while it is rated for 16 MPG, the performance under police-use conditions with all the idling and sudden acceleration is 8-10 MPG.

According to Foti, the Tesla Model 3 has “hit all its marks” during the brief period that it has been in service. So color us optimistic. The performance is there. The officers like it. The range has been adequate. Tesla is monitoring the battery. It is hoped that the life of the vehicle will exceed the service life of conventional police vehicles.

We now enter the period of gathering data. By definition, that will take some time. And we’ll be here to report it when that time comes.

The Tesla Model 3 police cruiser was the star of the EV Club meeting

Westport Chief of Police Foti Koskinas brought the new, fully customized Tesla Model 3 police vehicle to the EV Club meeting this week to exhibit to a group of roughly 30 attendees. He applauded the support the police received from First Selectman Jim Marpe, Sustainable Westport, the EV Club of CT, and many residents. This car is a tangible step toward the town’s objective of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

The police department continues to field inquiries about their experience and process to this point from countries all over the world. The chief referenced recent inquiries from Istanbul, Turkey, and New Zealand.

Chief Foti is shown here speaking to the club. He is drinking Pepsi, folks, although he has also drunk the Kool-Aid as evident in his enthusiasm about the Model 3. The vehicle has only been in service for two weeks, which is not much time to gather data, but Foti told the crowd that it is performing as advertised. He looks forward to gathering more data as the department accumulates more experience with it to further analyze the use case.

A police vehicle is normally kept for around 120,000 miles. But those are driving miles and the vehicle will have spent 30,000 hours idling during its time in use. In the stories about the Tesla acquisition that have been published in various outlets, some commenters expressed negative sentiment about police spending time idling in general. For the record, it is required. The computer needs to be kept running, and the officers have to be in a position to respond instantaneously. The combination of the driving and idling equates to 300,000 driving miles, per Chief Foti. The police electronic equipment is being wired directly into the 75 kW Tesla battery. Problem solved with respect to emissions, but it is hoped, and we won’t know for a while, that the Tesla will have a longer service life. Tesla is monitoring the battery and advises the police to expect 1% to 1.5% diminishment per year, meaning the vehicle can remain in service a long time without worrying about a battery that becomes meaningfully compromised.

Chief Foti also discussed how the mileage stats that are on paper about a car don’t mean a lot with respect to actual performance. The 16 MPG that is the rated performance of the Ford Explorers is closer to 8 – 10 MPG due to the nature of its use for police work. But, that said, and in the service of gathering data, the department is also working with Ford to test a conventional hybrid Explorer police vehicle. The hybrid would see a gain in rated mileage from 16 to 28 MPG, and would somewhat mitigate the use of the engine while idling.

The Model 3 is not the department’s first experience with a plug-in vehicle. It owns two plug-in Priuses, which are used for parking enforcement and mostly run in electric mode.

The Model 3 has been deployed to traffic, where its ability to accelerate quickly from a standing start is valuable from the perspective of officer and public safety, described in more detail in an earlier post here. Chief Foti put more specific numbers to it at the meeting.  The police Model 3 will go from 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds. The faster the police vehicle can accelerate to overtake a speeder and the shorter the distance to catch up to the offender, the lower the risk. Describing the safety issue as “huge,” he states that he may only have to drive at 65 MPH with the Tesla instead of 85 MPH, and travel two-tenths of a mile rather than six or seven-tenths of a mile.

Traffic is a big issue locally. There is plenty of it. The department receives numerous complaints of dangerous driving from residents. Chief Foti described Westport as a “cut-through” town, given that  I-95 and the Merritt Parkway cross the town, not to mention Route 1 and the two train stations. When there is a backup (which happens all the time), the map apps direct traffic onto local roads. There is a lot of speeding, distracted driving, and incivility.

The Model 3 is being used for either one or two shifts per day, every day. Even if the car has been on duty for 16 hours, there is still plenty of time overnight to fully recharge the battery.

This particular patrol car is not a “black and white.” It is dark gray with police decals, a design that “doesn’t stick out until you want it to stick out.”

Custom Model 3 Equipment Spec

Whelen engineering developed a lot of custom equipment for this car due to its being the first of its kind project. They didn’t charge the town since they view it as a pilot. In order to show their work to other prospective municipal customers, they have purchased their own vehicle. They spent about 200 hours working on this customization, but once this is in regular production, that is expected to be reduced by 80 to 90 percent. This vendor already has another order, though it is for a fire chief’s car.

BMW i8 Cabriolet

The Tesla wasn’t the only interesting vehicle to make an appearance. Club member Joe Stroll brought his gold BMW i8 Cabriolet.

Electric Vehicle Test Track at the New York Auto Show

UPDATE: This show has been postponed due to COVID-19 and is now scheduled for August 28 – September 6, with press days Aug. 26, 27.

Con Edison, the New York utility, is sponsoring the Electric Vehicle Test Track, as well as booth space for non-profit EV organizations from the tri-state area. Drive Electric Long Island is spearheading this, along with some of its coalition partners. The EV Club of CT has been invited to participate.

There will be a lot of EVs present and we look forward to the chance to speak with some of these companies about their plans and exchange experiences and ideas with other EVangelist groups.

A ticket to the auto show costs $17 for an adult. Club-members who volunteer for a shift at the booth will get a free ticket to the exhibition.

Tesla Model 3 Police Vehicle Appearance

The Tesla Model 3 police vehicle, as has been reported previously, has drawn an unbelievable amount of attention, whether at the CT Conference of Municipalities, inquiries from around the world, or local interest. It is safe to say that the Westport Police, supported by town leadership, have gotten way more than 75 kWh worth of mileage as a result of their innovative move. We have learned that the Police Model 3 will be making an appearance at the NY Auto Show. Tesla is covering the cost. We’ll publish more detail when available.

The show runs from April 10 through 19th, from 10 AM to 10 PM at the Jacob Javits Center on 11th Avenue in New York City.

Open for Business – Tesla leasing in Milford

Tesla held its official kickoff of leasing vehicles directly to customers from its service center in Milford, CT.

The festivities opened with Mayor Ben Blake of Milford touting that the town has more EV charging stations than any town in CT and is the supercharger capitol of the state.

Bruce Becker, president of the EV Club of CT, moderated the event, noting that Tesla accounts for the majority of the increase in EV registrations year over year.

There were also speakers from CT DEEP, The Sierra Club, and the CT League of Conservation Voters.

Prospective leasing customers are permitted to take a test drive.

It is technically called a demonstration drive, and the wording in the liability release is a little different reflecting the fact that it is in the service of a prospective lease, but it’s a test drive.

The first step to direct sales?

Tesla is still not permitted to sell directly to consumers, unlike in our neighboring states of New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and, for that matter, the majority of the country. What prevents Tesla from doing so are the so-named dealer franchise laws that were written decades ago to protect the dealerships from their own affiliated manufacturers. Those old laws did not address leasing which didn’t exist. Nonetheless, Tesla was careful, making sure they were legally buttoned up before taking this step. To be sure, this is only a first step, a foot in the door toward changing the law to permit direct sales. With other EV companies preparing to sell directly to consumers, if we in CT want to make a significant impact on emissions reduction, if consumers are to be given choice, it is only a matter of time.

Further coverage can be found in this article in the New Haven Business Journal.

WNBC-TV, New York, sent a news crew at the crack of dawn on Feb 5 to video the Police Model 3 Vehicle and speak to Westport First Selectman Jim Marpe.

The station’s news personnel arrived before sunrise, making the lights on the Model 3 seem that much more dramatic. They spoke with the police and First Selectman Jim Marpe about the town’s thinking behind the pioneering decision to incorporate a Model 3 into the police patrol car fleet. This was organized with the help of Sustainable Westport.

This is the link to the WNBC website for the report.

New Tesla Police Squad Car is on Duty

Today, Feb. 5, 2020, marks the official entry into duty for the recently acquired Tesla Model 3 police cruiser.

The vehicle was acquired in early December and since then has been undergoing the necessary customization for law enforcement, followed by a period of testing by the police. The information below comes from a phone call with Chief of Police, Foti Koskinas.

The customization, performed by Whelen Engineering and Fleet Auto Supply, in cooperation with Tesla, while a lot of work, has turned out extremely well and the testing has exceeded expectations. The car has racked up about 600 miles during the testing phase.

Use of Native Tesla Tech Has Saved Money and Improved the Model 3 Police Vehicle

The police are able to make use of the Tesla headlights and brake lights. The other electrical gear, such as the police lights and siren, has been wired directly into the 75-kilowatt-hour battery (as opposed to the 12-volt battery). This means that adding another 12-volt battery to support those items will not be required. (A conventional police vehicle comes with an oversize battery and heavy-duty alternator).

One of the questions about going this route was how much of a reduction in range would be caused by this. And the answer, based on the testing, is that it turns out to be negligible. With today’s technology, such as LED lights, the power drain is small.

With Tesla’s cooperation, the police are using the sentry cameras that come with the Tesla, meaning that they will be spared the approximately $3,000 expense that is normally incurred to add this to a police cruiser. And the Tesla cameras are of superior quality than what they would otherwise get.

When we wrote an earlier blog post that discussed these things, the outcome was still speculative. We are happy to report that it is now a done deal.

There remains an open question about whether the WPD will be able to use the Tesla computer for their purposes. It is the most complex part of the integration and will simply take more time to figure out if and how it can be done with adequate protections for each party. In the meantime, the vehicle is outfitted with a tablet and a modem.

Tesla Model 3 Police Vehicle Safety Advantage

A speeding driver passes a stationary patrol car. This is a common enough occurrence and the average person may not give it much thought. But the police do. The patrol car has to accelerate rapidly, move into traffic, possibly cross lanes, and drive at a speedier speed than the speeder in order to overtake and then pull over the driver. All of which carries with it an increased level of hazard for the officer and the public. With instantaneous EV torque, and of course, Tesla building very fast EVs, less time is needed to reach the offender, and lower average speed is necessary, thus reducing the degree of hazard during these maneuvers.

This safety advantage of the Model 3 was characterized by the police as a big win. (Also, in a conventional car, when the accelerator is “pinned,” the fuel-efficiency drops to around 8 miles per gallon.)

We have been advised that Elon Musk himself has seen and praised the modification, saying this is what a Tesla Model 3 police vehicle should look like.

In case you were wondering…

The response from the officers has been enthusiastic with requests to be assigned to this car.

No autopilot. The insurance company won’t go there.

The vehicle has been equipped to make a noise while driving at low speeds as a pedestrian precaution. If you would like to know what a spaceship sounds like when it is powering up, come listen to this car. We have also heard other descriptions of it. Listen for yourself on Feb. 20.

The Westport Police will be bringing the vehicle to the club meeting on Feb. 20. See the home page for details.

The CT Green Bank Financing Program for Commercial Properties Offers Free Charging Stations

Get your energy-saving upgrades with a side of charging station.

The CT Green Bank offers a 100% financing program for energy-saving upgrades to commercial buildings that goes by the acronym C-PACE. They have introduced an offer that, depending upon how much is financed, includes free charging stations. A minimum financing amount of $150,000 will get you one free charging station. The maximum number available through this offer is 3. This is the link to the program page on the Green Bank Website. This is an article in the New Haven Business Journal with a more detailed description.

Those interested must apply for C-PACE financing by May 15 in order to qualify for the charging station promotion.

C-Pace financing offers a number of advantages, including off-balance sheet treatment for the property holder and no inter-creditor agreements, among others.

If you are interested in this financing, do not contact the Green Bank. It is necessary to work through an underwriter. We happen to have one who is a club-member: CounterpointeSRE. Contact Marshall Breines at mbreines@csre-corr.com

Model 3 Receives International Interest

The Westport Police Department has acquired a Tesla Model 3, which was announced by this blog on December 3rd, and via press release on December 10. It caused a bit of a stir locally, but it has also received international attention. The department has received calls from several European countries and Singapore asking about their process, experience, and seeking to follow up as more data are collected over time.

This level of interest may not have been a complete surprise. The PD brought the vehicle to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, held at Foxwoods on December 3rd and 4th. It is estimated that between 1500 – 2000 people came up to them, a combination of attendees from other municipalities as well as curious patrons, expressing interest and asking questions.

First M3 Squad Car

Westport is the second community to acquire a Model 3 for the police. Bargersville, Indiana was the first, and they posted a message on the WPD Facebook page congratulating them for doubling the number of towns using the vehicle for police work. The Westport M3, however, is being fully outfitted as a squad car, which was not the case in Bargersville.

WPD is working with Whelen Engineering and Fleet Auto Supply to develop and install the lights, siren, gun rack, and other accoutrements necessary for law enforcement duty. It’s all custom development. Nothing off the shelf fits the M3. These companies are providing their services for free to Westport because they see this as the beginning of a new market. That was not included in the cost-recovery calculations, but it represents significant savings.

That funky material on the rear bumper? It is reflective, widely used in Europe, and a particularly useful safety precaution when a police cruiser is stopped for an emergency in an otherwise active lane of traffic.

Tesla Tech

All squad cars get outfitted with cameras and computers. But Teslas already come with some serious tech, and better quality than the police would normally buy as an add-on. Part of the learning process with this M3 is how much of that tech can be leveraged. As of this writing, Police Chief Foti Koskinas advises that they are going to be using the Tesla cameras, and the Tesla Fleet Department is working with them because, again, this will only become more widespread. The computer presents a more complicated challenge because there is confidential data from each party that would have to be protected. (We can’t have Tesla seeing INTERPOL alerts!) This is not resolved at this time.

With Tesla’s cooperation, the added features that require power will be wired directly into the Tesla battery. It slightly reduces range, but it is a much more elegant, cheaper, and safer solution than adding an additional 12-volt unit.

It is possible that when it becomes known how much of the Tesla tech can be leveraged that there will be acquisition cost-parity between this vehicle and the Ford Explorer that would have been the default option.

Police officers will be receiving training in the vehicle at Sikorsky Airport. It may be possible for some club-members to observe.

The Potential for State and Municipal Fleets to contribute to GHG Reduction is Enormous.

This vehicle is actually not the first plug-in owned by the department. It also owns a Toyota Prius Prime, a plug-in hybrid that gets about 25 miles of electric range (not used as a patrol car). The PD reports that most of the mileage on the car has been in electric mode, and the vehicle has worked out well.

On the other hand, there is New York City, which already has 2,200 plug-in vehicles in its fleet, avoiding 9,000 metric tons of CO2. All well and good, but Westport has one more police EV than NY. And the EV Club of CT applauds Foti and First Selectman Jim Marpe for taking this step.

There will be an open house in the spring for the public to see the new cruiser and speak to the police. The vehicle will also be brought to Maker Faire.

Tesla Model 3 is Newest Addition to Westport Police Fleet

It’s a good thing police vehicles have sirens, otherwise, you might not notice that sleek but quiet new patrol car speeding toward an emergency.

The Westport Police Department has acquired a Model 3 for its fleet of cruisers. EV Club members, Phil Levieff and Demetri Spantidos, worked with Foti Koskinas, Chief of Police, to help make this happen. They provided information, allowed their personal vehicles to be used for test drives, and made introductions to Tesla in Mt. Kisco, NY (since there are still no Tesla stores permitted in CT).

Westport PD is working with Fleet Auto Supply in West Haven to outfit the car with the features required for law enforcement.

If possible, the vehicle will be brought to the club meeting on December 9. The car will be on display, along with explanatory materials about the project and why it makes sense (and dollars and cents), at Foxwoods on Dec. 4th and 5th, where there is a gathering of municipal leaders from Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Further information about this project will be posted to this blog as it becomes available.

Club president Bruce Becker was invited by Tesla to attend the Cybertruck reveal.

The event took place on Nov. 21 at 9:00 PM Pacific Time. The early reviews of the design have been somewhat divided. Elon Musk, himself, described it as “pointy.” It has a distinctively high-tech, angular, military look.

The vehicle is certainly capable. The top trim level will travel over 500 miles on a single charge. Tesla showed videos of the vehicle towing a Ford F-150 and beating a Porsche 911 in a drag race. Musk invited an employee to sledgehammer the vehicle and he was unable to dent the stainless steel exoskeleton. The windows were less successful with their torture test. As Musk said, “Room for improvement.”

Tesla is taking reservations now. A refundable $100 deposit is required. Production of the vehicle is scheduled for 2021. This post is being written two days after the reveal and there is a report in TechCrunch that Tesla has taken 146,000 reservations, which would translate to about $8 billion worth of orders if all are delivered.

These are photos of Becker at the event, held near the Tesla Design Center in Los Angeles.