Queensland’s newest police patrol car will quite literally be a bright spark.
The state’s police service has unveiled its first electric vehicle, featuring bright yellow colouring, retro styling and torque that one officer said would make it “the most powerful vehicle in our fleet”.
The battery-powered car, a Kia EV6 GT, will be one of five electric models tested over the coming year and deployed into different environments across Queensland, including the Sunshine Coast.
The announcement is part of a growing trend in Australia, coming weeks after Western Australia Police added electric and hydrogen vehicles to its fleet and one month after NSW Police deployed an electric car for highway patrols.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said the service’s first electric vehicle, which led the Queensland State of Origin team bus last week, had been wrapped in vivid yellow as a nod to past vehicles and to draw bystanders’ attention.
“The vehicle behind me is a bit of a throwback to the ’80s – the V8s when we had those big highway patrols – but this one is certainly a lot more efficient,” she said.
“We will have five of these around the state … to really test it.”
Five electric vehicles will be deployed for highway patrols across Brisbane, Nambour, Ipswich, Toowoomba and Cairns to try the car in different situations and environments, Acting Assistant Commissioner Matthew Vanderbyl said.
“What does it do to electric vehicle range when we drive it up and down the Toowoomba Range 10 times a day or when we put it out into Cairns into the wet tropics, what does that do to batteries and the technology?” he said.
“This vehicle is a concept car.”
Mr Vanderbyl said the customised Kia EV6 GT vehicles, which typically promise to accelerate from one to 100km/h in 3.5 seconds, would also be “the most powerful vehicle in our fleet”.
The vehicles, he said, would be fitted with radio and lights and join the fleet within three months.
The electric cars will operate alongside almost 80 hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles already used by Queensland police.
Mr Vanderbyl said the service’s eventual transition to a fully electric fleet for its nearly 3000 vehicles was “inevitable”.
“We see a really accelerating rate of take-up in electric vehicles within the broader community,” he said.
“There are good reasons for that.”
Earlier this month, Western Australia Police launched a long-term trial of two zero-emission vehicles: the Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric car and a Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle.
NSW Police also introduced an electric BMW iX SUV to its highway patrol service in May, and Victoria Police began using Tesla electric vehicles in its highway patrol fleet in 2019.
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