Every New NYPD Police Car is an Electric Hybrid in FY20

The NYC Fleet Newsletter reports every new police car and utility procured this year was a hybrid. NYPD received 409 new hybrid police cars, with 374 hybrid sedan Ford Responders and 35 Ford Hybrid Utility Interceptors and Escapes. This is the first time NYPD has procured an entire class of hybrid police cars. Of the 534 total fleet units received by NYPD in FY20, 81% will use some type of fleet alternative, either hybrid-electric or biofuels. The remaining units include police motorcycles, a disabilities accessible mini-van, SWAT trucks, and general support trucks. 

With the new hybrids, NYPD will operate 2,199 alternative fuel designed vehicles, the largest clean fleet of any city agency. NYPD operates 25 different models of alternative fuel vehicles including 51 plug-in electric on-road units. NYPD had been exempted from Local Law 38 of 2005 which requires fuel-efficient vehicles but has worked with DCAS to reduce fuel use and emissions as part of the NYC Clean Feet Plan. The new hybrid policing units are expected to achieve at least 33% improvement in fuel economy from previous comparable units. 

The city is also working to develop viable plug-in electric options for policing as part of Mayor de Blasio’s Executive Order 54 of 2020, which calls for a transition to all-electric by 2040.