When you think of BMW, you don’t think of being arrested. You think of class and luxury. However, as it turns out, BMW isn’t just the people who sell cars to your dentist, they’re also full-fledged auto manufacturers with an eye on the bottom line. Sometimes, that means expanding the business. Los Angeles is providing their police department with 100 BMWs.
Don’t worry, the BMWs aren’t the luxury cars you might be thinking of. The cars are BMW i3 electric cars. Greenlots will provide the charging facilities, and the lease of the cars will run $387 per month per car, including maintenance. The cars, which are expected to rack up 10,000 miles per year, will be used by detectives and other staff during criminal investigations and follow-ups. The cars will have an estimated 115 miles of battery life per charge; this will be a test of both BMW’s ability to make solid electric cars and the suitability of the electric cars as potential black-and-whites in the future.
“Other car manufacturers competed, they couldn’t beat the price, so BMW did do their homework and they wanted to sell the cars,” said Vartan Yegiyan, director of police transportation. “In the next three to four years, we will learn from the technology and use the opportunity to work with car manufacturers and design a robust high-performance patrol electric vehicle. That’s our aim.”
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