Electric police car ride-along in New Zealand
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- New Zealand Police are trialing a batch of battery powered cars to see how they fare in the real world with the feedback from front line police officers being largely positive.
But what are they really like in action? And how far does a police officer typically drive in a shift? To find answers to these questions (and a whole heap more) Gav arranged a ride-along in an all-electric BMW i4 Highway Patrol car.
We hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at a very unusual electric vehicle in action and invite you to press the Subscribe button. There's clean tech video content coming every week, with even worse "dad jokes" from Gav on the way!
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Got to be extra funny when someone decides to ICE a charging spot and this guy rolls up.
Doesn't happen much across the pond here in Aus. Parking Lots just LOVE handing out FINEs. ICEing a charger space is a nice pay day for them.
Force them to switch to EV. muhaha the irony
I always check the vehicles parked on the EV charging spaces have a cable attached, and issue an infringement if they don't, irrespective of whether they are ICE or EV.
Cause of the instant ticket?
@@RandomAccountHolder because it is an offence to park in an EV charging space when not charging.
"whats a highway patrol vehicle?"
"driving around on the highways"
This is good. The police can ignore actual crimes, but in an eco friendly way.
B..b...but how would they be able to issue tickets to people who are going 10 over the speed limit 🥺
You must always blow on the pie.
Safer communites together
Great job Gavin, first police EV ride along I’ve seen and you nailed it! I’m actually rather impressed it still gets 350-400 km range with all that stuff bolted to the roof, I see a bright future for the first company to offer some much more aero-tuned alternatives.
That's awesome!!! They spend so much time sitting around idling this just makes so much more sense. I can't wait to see them de-icing chargers too.
100k cop cars wow, gone of the days of the Australian Holdens that probably only cost 50-70k..
Just like falcadores they dont pay rrp for these
@@johnnie5wreckingyardbut it's only 5 cars in the fleet so the discount can't be that much
@@yota8325 so you run the police fleet program ? lol, they are essentially on trial , theres plenty of bmw hwp in aus , they are different spec to consumer vehicles
did you actually watch the video? the officer said when they were looking at using an ev for police work there was very little choice available that met their spec. That is why the BMW was used. Also he said that he doesn't think this car will be the standard issue going into the future. There are so many more evs on the market now, and it will be interesting what they eventually end up with?
@@TerryHickey-xt4mf yet thats pretty inaccurate , theres tesla and kia police cars already in service and no doubt others if you look worldwide
Gav looked worried when he pulled up the van... omg, is that uncle....
Goes flat during police chase 😂
As a viewer from the UK it's interesting to see you driving around Christchurch in a police car. I was in Christchurch 12 years ago this month. Lovely country, and it's Spring now for you and miserable early winter here. Jealous, me ? You bet I am.😂
Very cool video, love seeing all the applications of EVs in NZ. More content like this please!
A new kind of BMW to break down and disobey road rules around the clock. What a combination haha!
They'll have to increase the fine to pay the 20% interest
Could have better spent the money on speed cameras and generated more revenue for the government. When people who are 5 to 10 kmhr over the speed limit are described as "the bad guy's" I laughed. How about tackling the real problems in NZ like gangs, drugs and associated crimes from those arseholes?!
it was a 'slow' day, and needed a bit of action for poor old Gav to video, and besides this ev is a test case for the police to evaluate the potential.
Great to see the police being objective for vehicles and nice video clip, very informative
Thanks
Thanks mate. It was a very different kind of video but I learned a lot! -Gav
10:45 Police that use the Model 3 in the USA have found that when it has lights and esp a light bar with a sign on the outside of the car greatly affects the range of the car that most have moved the light and sign to inside of the car
crazy how in 10 - 5 years this cars specs will be considered horrendous compared to what future evs will be like
they''re already bad to be fair. the range is good but the rest is just budget ev specs
the amount of gear he's wearing he doesn't look like he is wearing a seatbelt haha
Not properly but he definitely had it on, you can see it under his taser and he puts it back on when gets back in. It looks like some of that gear tore the shit out of the side of his seat at some stage, personally I would find somewhere else for that taser though - being that close to the airbag and the family jewels and all lol.
The rules only applies to the common people!
Thanks for another great video. Yes please for more charging stations Especially in Botany downs/ Howick (Auckland) area.
Interesting vid. Have seen this out on the roads, impressive looking to say the least…
An issue I read about with petrol police cars is that as cars spend much of their time idling, then at short notice high power and speed demanded for an emergency, that dramatic change is very hard on petrol motors. Electric motors are much better for the change in demand.
If the engine is already warm I think it doesn’t matter
@@Simba4321 correct
@@Simba4321 That was the issue, an idling engine does not make it warm enough for immediate high performance.
@@josviersel not entirely sure but when most cars idle they do keep the engine warm enough to suddenly do high speed driving. Would you happen to know where you read that from?
@@josviersel Every car I have owned runs at optimal temperature after about 5 minutes.
It maintains that at idle through the use of a thermostat.
When you use "high performance" the thermostat opens to try and maintain that optimum temperature.
That is why your Temperature gauge hardly ever moves after warm up.
I saw that going down the road with its lights on 😂
Great video. I wonder what the criteria was that resulted in the BMW i4 being chosen over some of the other good EV's? Skoda, Tesla etc.
BMW was suited to their use model and the Enyaq "wasn't ready in time" according to Stuff reporting at the time (June 2023) that the Police were deciding on choice of EV.
Also from that report "The Enyaq and i4 are unlikely to be the only vehicles considered for the role. Last December it was confirmed that the police were adding 34 fully electric Hyundai Ioniq 5s and Konas for ‘non-operational work’ at 15 centres around the country."
I reckon the police will likely use more Skoda EVs if they came out with a fully electric Superb and not just the iV too, they have a good relationship with Skoda and also BMW so it makes sense
not available at the time.
Great video mate, nice to see the police EVs on the road.
Great video as always.😂
Love it, saw a BMW highway patrol vehicle where I live here in Australia not EV unfortunately. Too bad couldn't pull a J-Turn in this would be perfect, like Hot Fuzz where in the movie that occurs near the end.
3700 cop cars at 115k each. 425million . I obviously know not every car is electric. But 425million. Did they not recently upgrade to Skoda electric. Now to bmw. Let alone the district councils having the latest rangers, Hilux. At 50-60k.
Yet they struggle to fix water leaks . Rough roads covered in pot holes.
Skoda is the current fleet vehicle purchased at a bulk rate, this EV is just a trial and not purchased at a bulk rate, when you purchase a few you pay considerably more due to customising them
saves money overall
LMAO.... this is going to age like milk in the sun.
Did Scoda lose the contract??
Need to train the cops in public charger etiquette. I had to wait for half an hour at a fast charger while this car sat there unoccupied at over 90% charge, definitely no longer fast charging.
tell the police/mayor
6:29 Crikey, it's the electric rozzers!
may
A great insight into the changes that the police are going through for sustainability. One small piece of advice, having text on the screen and having audio that is not the same as the text, is impossible to read. Use your b roll footage, have no speaking, put the text up for a bit longer and it's perfect.
Did anyone else notice when the cop got out of the car just how absolutely destroyed the seat bolster was? Crazy lol
Ford is making special seats for police cars because of that problem.
Surprising, Id put some PTFE tape or some slippery protection over it until they have spares
9:42 wonder how long it will be until they need to replace the drivers seat. 😬
Perhaps the dog handler got to borrow the car and Rover got bored?
Remember when the police went to low line lights for more aerodynamic efficiency. Then they stuck a huge light board on and made it worse than the original set-up.
I sense that was both an enjoyable and somewhat intense afternoon!
Should of used Hybrid cars not electric
is a bmw electric car exensive in nz? 💖
Thank you for this fantastic video! Senior Constable Jimmy is on to it!
Wow so speeding on the other side they can get a accurate rating to pull you over
the only thing I would be cautious about is the infrustructure, if petrol stations were just starting to open up at the rate of charging stations, you would be cautious of the ICE cars, HOWEVER I don't want to visit the petrol station every time I want to have a snack, I think it's perfect for the police force because... they have a range of duties going from intra office negotiations to of course highway.
With more places that are opening up to EV charging stations, who knows... they might park up at a shopping centre, go into the cafe, buy a coffee, go over to the vietnamese roll place and buy a sandwich, sit down and eat and do a round of the shopping centre before going back to the car, if you do that enough with the whole "police are never really on break" sort of thing it will end up for the better, especially with community outreach.
I do occasionally see electric police cars over here in England. Not too long ago I was in London with a friend and we saw a police car which was a BMW i3. We couldn’t help but wonder if it would even have enough range for a good pursuit or if the bad guy would just get away after a few minutes.
Seen a lot of Ioniq 5 police cars up here in Scotland, New Kona, Enyaq and Q4 E-Tron as well.
Keep both hands on the steering wheel officer.
OMG it is a highway patrol car as well, even funnier.
Why are they not using the Skoda Enyaq? 1/2 the price. Skoda is the new fleet car. 540km range.
It was not available when they chose the BMW but is under evaluation.
@@TerryHickey-xt4mf As a tax payer picking the more economic option that provides the same or similar outcomes is the way to go
I got pulled over by one of these once, as soon as I was let go I asked the officer "Mate how the fuck can the department afford that shit?". Guess we both don't have answers.
Charge points at the Police Station and Doughnut Store.
Now, let's get serious..
Bring on the Plaid..
who will pay for the plaid?
@@TerryHickey-xt4mf same price
10:55 what happened to keep left except when overtaking?
he's too busy nailing people for 10 over
I did a visit to the UK in June and that part was an eye opener, they REALLY do keep left unless overtaking in that country, there must be big fines, because it is obeyed even by the lunatic speedsters like Merc, BMW and Audie drivers, (jealous of course in my lowly Nissan ).
Ute weight.
ACAB but good to see they are going electric
Nah nz cops are good.
@@JohnSmith-lc1ml my family got our bathroom extension and home Reno from a Police compensation case due to an illegal raid and excessive force. So not all bad, thanks tax payers 😂
Great video. Could do without the audio wallpaper….
can u plz review the sealion six byd
Imagine if Shihad's motorcade was comprised of these cars! Battery would be draining as!
Is that the model that over seas catch fire?...got a asian battery problem....idk if I see one combust I'll know lol
Enjoyed that.
✨ cops are not your friends ✨
real world - stupid expression -
nice they using EV's. cost savings on fuel wil be huge
$115 000 a police car 😮😮😮
I am surprised New Zealand does not use the 999 or, more likely, the 112 number for emergency calls, but do all 3 services use different numbers?
We use 111 to contact any of the 3 services.
It dates back to the days of old rotary dial telephones. In the UK the digit “9” was in the last position on the dial, meaning that to dial 999 had to be a more deliberate action (preventing inadvertent/accidental dialing 999). Historically in New Zealand the numbers on rotary dial telephones was the opposite way (I don’t know why), resulting in the digit “1” being the last (furtherest) position on the dial, and hence 111 became our Emergency Services (Fire, Police, Ambulance) number.
In the interests of international compatibility, dialing any of the overseas emergency numbers in New Zealand (112, 911, 999, 000, etc. ) will automatically be redirected to 111.
@@spotop42 smarter than US
Reckon the police force should’ve gotten BYD Seal instead of the BMW. Maybe could’ve gotten 2 Seals for the price of that BMW. Government ought to spent tax payers dollars more intelligently i reckon:)
nothing will beat the holdens
they just looked the part too! and a police friend of mine said that when the European made ones started taking over, everybody in the station dashed for the commodores. An end of an era, but when evs come in, perhaps a start of a new one.
Police said nothing could be better than a horse in the day. Similarly, in a few years ICE will perform so poorly and be so expensive that no police would think of using them. An EV’s acceleration means the chase is over immediately. Less risk.
Except everything else on the road lmao.
bro! where are the POTATOES
Just stay ahead until he runs out of battery power 😂.
not recommended, may just backfire with a big fine or more.
So for 3 or 4 hours?
You know that Police have radios I am sure. They'll just call another patrol to take over the chase.
Aside from 115k price tag he drives 350km a day ev road user charge is $76 per 1000km what the hell are they doing with tax this is unforgivable!
That's a reasonable amount of dollars for a vehicle, that once it hits a pothole or another vehicle it's a write off? can't understand why NZ police are underpaid 8 cars million with gadgets.
This is hilarious. They tried this in the UK and the cars kept running out of charge in pursuit of criminals 🤣
Is that copper wearing a seatbelt?
Why was the cop not wearing his seat belt?
Because they’re above the law
@@davidboyd8113if you got the hate out of your eyes you’d see that he’s actually wearing his seatbelt
Fyi he is wearing his seatbelt
Are you blind?
Good spotting! 👍
ALWAYS READY TO BE OFFENDED DRIVING A BOUNCY CASTLE
I bet it does not do 500 km on one charge , only if you drive slow and no aircon etc…
he said in the video that most days it is under 350ks.
@@TerryHickey-xt4mf That's how much he drives in a shift, not necessarily how long the battery lasts. He suggested that his patrol hadn't been affected.
Lots of auxiliary power used by comms, computer, radar, aircon, lights and siren.
@@jaygee5693 perfect for having a huge battery
@@Nicholas-f5 Regardless of how "huge" the battery is, the limited operational range combined with the lengthy charging time restrict the vehicle's suitability for police work.
awesome
😢 no PSC because the Popo equipment takes so much space
Ah, so Gav /did/ get arrested after going through the breathalyser in the Cyberster.
Can they swap out batteries, and are they situated to power centers so they can rotate the vehicle with fully charged batteries. They need both cheap and accessible power, but the car also needs to be of a much higher quality as you phase out batteries.
Battery is probs under the car and is big and heavy and since it’s a bmw would take a while to get out
@@Simba4321 Yeah they are just buying a product they want to sell, rather then putting in a contract of policing requirements. The greed of EV manufacturing will be its demise.
@@Unknown-gi1ujI don’t mind the Evs but they are just to slow and expensive
@@Simba4321 I wouldn't say slow, i would say they have a limited shelf life with no resale/used market. They are heavy, putting HUGE wear on our roads and on the stolen running gear. Ev's really need to go the way of short distance flying.
@@Unknown-gi1uj yeah I meant like this bmw is pretty slow for the cost and that’s the whole reason they got it
The fake grill is a bit daggy.
Over 100k BMW VS 65k Tesla, the idiot government better spending more carefully.😂
Same problem as EV ambulances, they are required to be available at anytime 24/7 for the unknown/unplanned, unexpected occurrence.
And woky EV fire engines. What is just after a turn out, are need again, but have to be charged.
@@patrickcannell2258 they work great in LA
So when will you buy vehicles fit for vertically warfare...
Senior (wow you're a senior lol🙄) Constable Jimi takes himself way too seriously. Ego vibes are strong with this one. Lighten up dude 🙄
A 100k WTF
stop the wasteful spending
100K cop cars and 100s of thousands of people still homeless on the streets....
If people didn’t commit crimes we wouldn’t need them.
these save money VS gas
NZ Police has a lot of money 😂 115k for brand new BMW!
saves money over gas
can still gap that in my subi
How much policing time is lost through chargeing times?
how much police time is wasted by going to the toilet
compared to the horrendous amount of paperwork they have to endure, very little I would suspect.
The better question is how many extras cars have they bought to make sure there is always a fully charged car ready for patrol? If every car is 115k then that's a lot of dosh been spent.
@@damionkeeling3103answer is in the video
@@damionkeeling3103 wrong
Where's your seat belt? 😅
ah man thats my hood!
interesting video. The wear on the drivers seat is pretty bad for a near new car.
I mean you do have to consider that they're wearing gear on the belt and more often are getting in an out more than someone normally would
Fascinating!
But the police shouldn’t drive on the wrong side of the road. Sets a bad example
you know that is going no where near a cursuit incase it gets sratched
I'd rather they fix our god damn roads and abolish the way we get our license's it makes it harder for young people my parents had the 1 and done for theirs
i4 e35 is not catching anyone lol, nice car tho
No one speeds anymore so they troll around road works and reduced speed areas preying on some poor bastard who drove though 10kms too fast. If in New Plymouth we now seem to setup fake road works with no work actually being done and the low life cops are have a field day. Its disgusting!
None of what you have stated is correct.
@@jjon7103 So cops don't give people speeding tickets at the Mangorei rd works? Because I swear I have seen 3 poor bastards getting tickets there. No one working there at all but the cops.
Do you have to give way to police when charging?
No, they have tasers for that.
That 590km range when in a pursuit drops to probably 200km
Yup thats what happens when you go faster, did you also know that in a gas car if you go faster for longer you also lose your expected top range. Hope this helps bro.
@@mehp6107 ha thanks, you must be a mechanic. Don't see them making a seperate video on a commodore or skoda....
No way 590 kM in real World running more like 290 if that add cold weather and rain be even Less
@@mehp6107 The same for a petrol car too.
Great handling BMW, but the petrols are better
Biggest waste of our tax dollars especially when people can't afford basic living items. 😒 there are cheaper options out there.
gas costs more
@Nicholas-f5
I was referring to cheaper EV options.
115k could’ve gotten way better
Neat