British Cops Unable to Use Blue Lights on New Electric Car
Cops based near Oxford in the UK have revealed that they are unable to to use flashing blue lights on their new electric car – in case it drains too much power from the battery.
The Thames Valley police force is testing out the £20,000 ($33,000) Mitsubishi iMiev in an effort to improve its environmental credentials. Apart from this quite obvious setback, they have been pleased with the silent, emission-free car, capable of travelling 100 miles on a single charge (with the lights off).
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According to local Councillor Gerry Webb, of Oxford, “It also saves public money.” The force has yet to decide whether to buy more of the cars.
In the meantime, the cops have not yet revealed exactly how they intend to signal suspects to pull over – maybe they could drive real close and pull a funny face?
Joking aside though, this story highlights a broader issue about the effect that ’supplementary’ power-using devices, from electric windows to Sat-Nav, might have on the overall engine power and range of electric cars.
Some manufacturer’s have opted for an integrated solar roof to power such systems, like this quirky Trabant. One obvious drawback of this approach is that extended cloudy or dark periods will render it useless. Others have opted for a supplementary low-power battery, which has the disadvantage of taking up much-needed space. A company’s ability to come up with suitable solutions to just this kind of problem could prove to be a critical arena of competition in the future.
Image Credit – davidsonscott15 on flickr
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November 2nd, 2009 at 6:53 am
There must be more energy efficient lighting solutions like LEDs, etc.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:24 am
I was going to say…LED’s don’t use up that much power…and it’s not like they are going to have them on all the time. Innovateion guys!
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:18 am
Hmm… our new patrol car has LED patrol lights, wonder what’s up in the UK??
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Maybe they can get the crooks to push the car back to the station?
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:57 pm
What is the job of the police anyway? Is it to be environmentally and politically correct, or to prevent/combat crime?
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:18 pm
No give everyone else the electric cars. They’ll be easier to catch that way.
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:42 pm
LEDs – ah the solution to everything. How many do you suppose? You need at least 20mA per semi-bright LED. Each one drops something like 2V; so string 6 to = 12V (assuming that’s the bus voltage), 6×20mA=120mW. Now how many banks of 6? Point is, it takes a lot of LEDs and a lot of power to get a pretty pissy looking attention-getter.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Considering how fast UK police cars don’t go I always thought the rotating light was so that the art student on her Vespa didn’t rear end the car during a high speed chase.
November 4th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I can’t wait to see one of these involved in “World’s Wildest Police Chases”.