Copyright WEAU
ONALASKA, Wis. (WEAU) - After working out a deal with General Motors. The Onalaska Police Department is adding two new electric police vehicles to their unit. Police chief Charles Ashbeck says the new vehicles will provide more efficiency. “There is going to be less downtime, more uptime for these cars to be out in the community because of a less amount of repairs that these cars need, so they can be out there. All things mechanical do have problems over time. We experience that, where our traditional cars are in the shop getting repaired because of the hard conditions that they operate in,” says Ashbeck. Ashbeck adds that adding electric vehicles will also be cost-effective for the department and for the community. “If something does go bad with it, it’s covered under warranty for the entire time that we’re going to own the car. To me, that reduces any risk or liability to our department, our budget, to the city for that expensive component. As battery technology keeps improving, costs have dramatically kept lowering for battery costs,” says Ashbeck. Ashbeck says initially there were mixed reactions to the new vehicles in the department, but many are now on board with it. This includes officer Tyler Blair, who says there are many benefits this car brings to his daily work. “I definitely make less trips to the gas station. They have a lot of power, which is really cool, too. Anytime you need to get on a vehicle that’s up on Highway 53 or the interstate and you need to get behind that vehicle quickly and safely, you can do that,” says Blair. The warranty for the vehicles is 8 years or 100,000 miles. The department plans to bring in two more electric vehicles in the near future.
