NEWPORT, Ky. — After having success with adding electric vehicles to its police fleet, the city of Newport is looking to add more EVs for other departments.
In Dec. 2023, the Newport Police Department added three Tesla Model 3 vehicles for administrative use. The department liked them so much; it added two more this past November.
They’re much different from what Assistant Chief Herschel Day started driving 25 years ago.
“When I first started we were driving Ford Crown Victorias. We’ve come a long way,” he said. “As soon as they get in and drive it, they’re sold. We’ve had multiple officers that are now either in the process of buying an EV, or have bought their own EV after driving them.”
Captain Kevin Drohan said the price of police cruisers has increased drastically. The department was looking to see where it could cut costs.
“We got those, and we started spending way less on fuel, and realized that our cost could be about 15 bucks a month to fully charge an EV,” he said. “People see these cars as luxury vehicles. And we really are just buying the base model.”
The police department says the base models cost about $39,000 a vehicle. Comparatively, the department says Dodge Durangos are in the low $50,000 range.
The Teslas use LiDar (Light Detection and Ranging) to detect cars, people and other obstacles. And the 360 degree cameras have been helpful with investigations.
“This is always recording. It shows all the different views,” Day said. “You can see when I’m turning left, the screen shows the left side of the car to make sure I don’t hit anything.”
Drohan added, “Once you get in them and you see the technology that goes into them, you also see they maneuver and they handle just like any other motor vehicle.”
After seeing the police department’s success, Newport is requesting the Tesla Model Y for the Planning and Development and Code departments. Drohan said he thinks they’ll be useful.
“On an eight-hour day, ten-hour day, you want something that’s going to use less gas, use less maintenance, to just go a to b in a small three square mile city,” he said.
The city is also working on installing a Level 3 supercharger to go along with the new vehicles. Drohan said they’re tools to help better protect and serve.
Newport’s fire chief is also considering adding an electric vehicle to its own fleet.