How much should a police car cost? Not everyone is happy with a Tesla as a police car.
Spending community money. Don’t worry, it’s not only in the Netherlands that we have an opinion about what ‘they do’ with our tax money. For one person, spending can be a useful expense, while another sees it as a pure waste of money.
In this case, we are talking about a Tesla Cybertruck as a police car. The city of Irvine in California purchased one for the police department. Cost: $150,000, according to Forbes. This is a Cyberbeast with a price tag of $99,990. They opted for the Foundation Series, which increased the price by another $20,000. Then, several tens of thousands of dollars were needed to convert a normal Tesla into a police car.
Tesla Cybertruck Police Car
There will undoubtedly be Irvine residents who already see this as a waste of taxpayer money. But it doesn’t stop there. What really angers residents is the fact that the Tesla police car is primarily used to polish the department’s image. The car functions more as a promotional tool than as an actual police car.
Visitors and residents of the American city can have their photo taken with the car during events. Who is waiting for this? That is a sentence that came to mind from several residents of Irvine. They suggested that a Ford Explorer would suffice as a police car, not such an expensive Tesla Cybertruck.
Well-known tuner Unplugged Performance was paid by the city to convert the Cybertruck into a police car. The car was announced in June of this year. Apparently, there are actually cities, such as Irvine, that are willing to pay for the expensive purchase and conversion.
Presumably the police force and the municipality did not expect the negative reactions of the residents. Because yes, they do it in Dubai too, don’t they? The city in the United Arab Emirates is known for its supercars as police cars. Irvine has not yet acquired that reputation, it is highly questionable whether that will happen at all.
