The Hyattsville Police Department (HPD) is in the midst of a pilot program to determine if an all-electric patrol vehicle is able to withstand the rigors of day-to-day policing.
Troy Bradley, HPD’s fleet and mobile technology manager, said the department is trying to come up with an alternative to gas-powered vehicles and see if an electric squad car would fit within its patrol for daily use.
“Currently,” Bradley said, “we have Ford Explorers and Ford Tauruses, so this would just give us something else that we can utilize within the city.”
According to HPD’s website, the department maintains a fleet of nearly 70 total vehicles that support patrol, investigations, evidence collection, specialized units and administrative functions. The police department owns other electric vehicles, or EVs, including a Chevy Bolt used for parking enforcement, along with electric bikes and motorcycles. “They are used during community events and patrol when the weather permits,” HPD spokesperson Suzanne Kennedy said.
For the new pilot program, the department purchased two 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV Police Pursuit Vehicles — “among the few police-rated electric vehicles currently available nationwide,” the HPD site says. (One vehicle is used for training.) These vehicles are made exclusively for law enforcement, and therefore, do not need extra outfitting. “It is the only police pursuit-certified electric vehicle on the market,” Bradley told the Life & Times.
Such cars must have heavy-duty mechanical, electrical and structural components to withstand the rigorous demands of high-speed chases, extreme idling and daily urban patrols.
The electric Blazer was the ideal option, Bradley added, because the vehicle was already equipped with “upfitting” in mind, so it was already prewired, which saves money on labor and time. Upfitting a police vehicle usually involves adding lights, controllers, sirens and other elements law enforcement might need for daily work and emergency calls.
Each electric vehicle costs $59,000 (in 2023 dollars), compared to $48,000 for a typical Ford Explorer with an internal combustion engine. “So electric cars are significantly more expensive in the beginning because the batteries are not cheap,” Bradley admitted, but said there are many benefits — some that potentially will allow the city to save money in the long term.
The EV squad car has zero emissions during operation — even while idling — up to 60 hours of idle time without fuel use, an estimated range of 270 to 280 miles per charge and reduced maintenance needs, including no oil changes. Most importantly, there is no need to buy gas.
Launched in December 2025, the pilot project is tracking a variety of important performance metrics for one year to ascertain how the vehicle will perform in the field. “I’ve developed what I call the electric vehicle tracker,” Bradley explained. “So, basically, the data that we’re using from this tracker is going to determine how successful this program is going to be.”
Among the measurements the department is tracking are shift duration and everything the vehicle is used for during each shift, including emergency calls; battery state of charge at the beginning and end of each shift to make sure that the vehicle can last a full 12-hour shift; charger type utilized (level 1, 2 or 3); odometer readings to track mileage and usage patterns; environmental factors, such as outside temperature; duty classification (patrol, training, overtime); call volume handled during each shift; and total energy consumption per deployment.
The department is conducting a six-month review to gauge how the program is going so far.
“At the end of [June], I’m going to get some numbers together,” Bradley said. “I want to give the department an update on how well it’s going.”
The pilot program concludes in December 2026. If the electric vehicles perform well, the city will determine whether it can use more of them in fleet operations. “This is also dependent on the charging infrastructure,” Kennedy said.