Ford revealed the 2020 Ford Police Interceptor Utility this afternoon. Normally this wouldn’t be a terribly big deal, but the 2020 model is all-new, and it previews the next-generation Explorer. More importantly, it is a showcase of Ford’s emphasis on crossover and utility vehicles and their plan to electrify every vehicle that falls into either category. It also demonstrates why the Taurus and Fusion are no longer necessary.
Details are scarce right now, but judging by the official website, the 2020 Police Interceptor Utility will come standard with an all wheel drive hybrid powertrain. Ford did have a similar powertrain with the Escape hybrid, but that ended production in 2012, ostensibly replaced by the C-MAX.
This setup also arrives on a brand new platform, the Ford CD6 architecture, which will also underpin the Aviator and other Ford vehicles. The modular system allows Ford to develop either front or rear wheel drive models paired with an AWD system. For the Explorer and its police variant, it will be a rear wheel drive focused vehicle. If you look closely at the above picture, you can see the influence of the new platform, as the dash-to-axle ratio has noticeably increased. Otherwise it looks extremely similar to the current model. With the 2018 as the top seller in its segment, you really can’t blame them for sticking to what works.
With a claimed 24 MPG combined rating, the new model will likely save police departments a substantial amount of cash, that is if their fleet is already stocked with current one. And with Ford’s calculations using $2.50 per gallon, that should reduce the fuel budget for a single vehicle by about $3,100. The civilian model will likely save families some money, assuming it doesn’t cost much to upgrade to the hybrid variant.
Ford already had a similar fuel savings calculator set up for the Police Responder Hybrid Sedan, which is just a Fusion hybrid in police clothes. Note that this comparison is for the Police Interceptor, which despite what the picture shows, is actually a Taurus. But in the era of the crossover, that error is a minor one.
And while the NYPD may care about the availability of a Fusion hybrid, they probably will switch over to the Explorer.
And that’s because the new model boasts even more cargo room than the current one, and apparently that’s even taking the hybrid battery into account.
And what do you get when you purchase a Fusion hybrid police vehicle? Much less space for perps, partners, computers and weapons. Not to mention the reduced ride height.
So while the Fusion may be available with a police uniform for now, it will soon be replaced by the Explorer in cop duds, and it will be substantially more fuel efficient too. The 2020 Police Interceptor Utility is a concrete example of why sedans are falling out of favor.
Wow such cheap fuel, multiply their projected annual fuel use by 10 dollars per gallon and you’ll see why few local motorists buy these vehicles even the electric version is not an economical proposition to feed especially as a patrol car that runs nearly 24/7.
Explorers have been THE patrol car where I live and every place I have traveled for at least 4 years, Tauruses just never worked and I had no idea at all there was an attempt to put Fusions in the field. New York is the only place in the country I have heard of to use them in fact, which is new news to me.
Ditto. Never heard of a Fusion patrol car before.
Sedans as police cars are well past dead.
“Sedans as police cars are well past dead.”
For local (city, county, etc.) police use, probably true; for highway patrol, I wouldn’t bet on it.
Given the layout and density of New York city, it’s easy to see why the are looking at hybrids and electric vehicles. In the late 1970s they even put a few Plymouth Horizon’s into police service.
It didn’t work out so well.
FWIW, not much from Chrysler Corporation did well back then. Witness the stories about the R-body police cars…
NYC has been using Ford Hybrids for Police cars for a number of years, Escape, C-Max and pre-Responder Fusions. They make perfect sense for most duty in a large city where the top speed will be 40-50mph and time sitting idling, either stopped or in traffic accounts for the majority of hours per day.
When I was there last winter I saw a C-Max responding to a call at “speed”.
Both look rather interesting with rather crude, homemade looking “push bars” since Setina didn’t have rated equipment, if there is any significant take rate on the Fusion Responder.
I’m really surprised that the Seattle police dept hasn’t picked up any of the Fusion Responders, since they have been available for a while, but then again they don’t use the Special Service Sedan either though both would be appropriate for sitting and idling 75% or more of their time.
I still live in Charger and Taurus Land. But I am seeing more and more of the Explorers.
After the last of the GM B-bodies were retired, the CVPI became the defacto “cop car”. Mostly because it was still built with robust suspension parts and bodies.
Now with CAFE (and other regs) interfering with the way cars are designed, there are no sedans that are suitable for heavy duty police use. The Charger made a stab at it, but from what I understand, has a somewhat fragile front suspension.
In my part of Michigan we have an impressive mix of vehicles. Some surviving CVPIs, Chargers, Explorers and Tahoes. This applies to city, county and State Police, although the Stateys have retired all of their CVPIs, it seems.
In many ways, a hybrid should be an excellent service vehicle like a police car. I suspect that there will be some ICE-only pursuit cars in the future, but what really can outrun a Motorola? Or, in the near future, a drone?
Most civilian cars these days are speed limited to whatever their OEM-spec tires are/were. The vast majority of cars are governed to about 115MPH, well under what V-rated radials are capable of.
Illinois apparently bought a *lot* of Caprice PPVs (the Holden Caprice), still see quite a few of those on the interstates – there’s one I see regularly working I-74 West of Peoria (and no, we have not yet met ‘professionally’).
Impala Police Sedans are still thick on the ground in city use, at least around Peoria and surrounding smaller towns. I do see some SUVs, but for now, they’re more the exception than the rule.
Interesting… I need to get to other parts of the state. Very rarely see state troopers up this way, and the few I’ve seen are still in W-bodies.
Here in Chicago, almost every new police beat car I’ve seen in the last couple years is an Explorer. There are some unmarked Fusions with Illinois “MP” (municipal police) plates but I believe they’re more detective/support vehicles.
Here, in Evansville, Indiana, there are still a few Impalas being used by the city police as patrol units. Most of the patrol fleet is now Dodge Chargers, nearly all of which are equipped with the V6. There are still a few Crown Vics on duty as well, although they have to be approaching the end of their life cycle by now. The county sheriff’s patrol fleet is pretty evenly matched between Explorers and Chargers, with the likelihood that it will be entirely Explorers within a year or two. As far as I can tell the Indiana State Police uses Chargers, at least the road patrol units are. From the sound one of these Chargers made as it powered past me a couple of weeks ago I would say that the ISP still specs the V8 for highway duty.
Ha, here we have leased V6 commodores, what they are going to use when the leases expire is a mystery GMH still has the supply contract but only rebadged Vauxhall Insignias to sell, and they aren’t.
Quite off-point, but buy one, Ed! Then order a bunch of Statesman parts from here to doll it up again – say, $10kAUD or $7.5K USD should do it at max – and you’d have truly unique cheap-ish runabout. And one that, in my infallible opinion, actually looks better than the SWB. Go on, you know you want to…
It was interesting after the Crown Vic was discontinued, all the different vehicles I saw around here wearing police colors. It was like they couldn’t decide what to replace the Crown Vics with so they got a few of everything to try. Besides the aging Crown Vics, I can recall:
* Ford Explorer
* Ford Taurus
* Ford F150 (with a topper)
* Chevy Tahoe
* Chevy Colorado (not the current generation, the previous, which I thought was an interesting choice)
* W-body Chevy Impala
* Holden Caprice
* Dodge Charger
Interestingly no Fusions, but perhaps there wasn’t a police Fusion back then.
Ultimately the Charger and the Explorer won, and the other vehicles disappeared. Except that is for the F150’s which I still see around occasionally, all of which are still of the 2009-2014 generation.
Fusion was never meant to be a patrol car, more like an Admin or Parking Ticket writer’s car.
Taurus was restyled for 2010 to make it “more exciting”, but was it worth it? Should have kept the basic layout of the 2005 Five Hundred and 2008 Taurus.
The Hybrid Sedan Responder is most definitely meant to be a patrol car.
Ford has 3 levels of Police Vehicles.
SSV or Special Service Vehicle. This gets Police grade interior and exterior trim, components designed for extra durability and the ability to properly power any upfit equipment.
Responder, Similar to the SSV but with pursuit rating, confirmed by MSP testing.
Interceptor, Similar to the Responder with a higher level of performance.
The Responder Hybrid Sedan (Fusion) replaced the Responder Sedan (Taurus) and has been joined by the F-150 Responder in the middle of Ford’s line up.
More like parking lot or gated community patrol.
We have similar situation in Germany with police cars.
The police officers in Nordrhein-Westfalen state complained about the new fleet of BMW 318d Touring as too small for the police duty. They claimed that their belt made it too difficult to seat in the narrow bodied car.
Yet, the Bavarian police officers don’t seem to have any issue with their 3-Series Touring.
One more thing…
NRW police officers should be grateful they don’t live and work in Berlin. Due to the severe budgetary crisis, Berlin makes do with cheap Opel Corsa.
I saw the Corsa police car for the first time when visiting Berlin and had to restrain myself from laughing out loud at the poor saps driving Opel.
Could be worse! (Although to be fair, this “car” is used to patrol a walking/bike trail mostly.
If I were a cop and had to chase a vehicle, I would greatly prefer a sedan, if it was expected that I actually make an apprehension. The increased height is an advantage primarily for those cops who are most concerned with projecting an image.
The claim that crossovers fuel mileage is nearly as good as the sedans they are derived from is easily debunked by comparing the mileage each variant actually obtains in road tests. Typically the CUV gets at least 30% less than the sedan.
High speed pursuits are disappearing, for public and police safety. Most cops want comfort and room for all the electronics, safety gear, etc. I don’t blame them, although when I see similarly equipped cops in Kias or Focuses in other countries, I wonder if our patrol cars are really worth their initial cost, running costs, and unwieldiness in urban traffic.
The general public would be wise to make the same choice and generally doesn’t in the US, either. The police are making the same choice for the same reasons, probably.
There were stories a year or two ago that showed the Explorers and Tahoes were actually cheaper overall, largely due to high resale value and better durability.
The problem is that there aren’t that many cases where the car and CUV are that close in power trains. When you do find one you’ll see that they aren’t that far apart.
The Ford Interceptor Sedan and Interceptor Utility are available with identical power trains and the results are much closer than 30%, in fact they are the same in one case.
Sedan 3.7 AWD 16/22/18
Utility 3.7 AWD 15/20/17
Sedan EcoBoost 3.5 AWD 15/22/18
Utility EcoBoost 3.5 AWD 15/20/17
So city is the same or only ~7% better for the Sedan, highway the Sedan gets 10% better and the combined ~6% better for the Sedan.
Of course for police cars the bigger factor is often the idle gal/hr which of course will be the same for the vehicles with the same power train, while the hybrid will easily cut the gal/hr in half.
In the performance dept, the Utility is within spitting distance of the Sedan in the MSP vehicle dynamics and acceleration testing.
We still have a lot of Crown Vic’s throughout California, local PD’s, County, and Highway Patrol. The replacements (which, to be fair, are now probably 75-80% of cars I see on duty) are either Explorer or Charger … the latter seem to be making a comeback with the CHP. I have never seen a Fusion Patrol car. In my smallish town, with one freeway just a few miles long, I really don’t understand why we need EcoBoost Explorers and Honda ST1300 bikes. Our city Park Rangers drive F150’s and Toyota Tacoma’s; same for the Fire Department’s beach lifeguards (4 wd). Looking forward to seeing the hybrids. Oh, and our gas prices are heading north of $4 per US gallon (3.8 liters).
CHP started using AWD Exploders in 2013. For some reason the current buy is Charger, I suspect due to a real aggressive price bid by FCA, based on an Orange County Register article I read. Many CA agencies piggyback on the CHP buy, thousands of cars in total.
With vast amounts of winter snow covered mountain roads and urban freeways, the CHP should split the bid, instead of one vehicle fits all.
I saw this in Brooklyn last week:
I don’t know which is worse. This or the Smart car I posted. Yes I do… the Smart car is worse.
As a deputy sheriff who drives these vehicles, the jury is still out for me on how well a hybrid powertrain would hold up, particularly here in Florida where the heat saps engine power to begin with. I wonder about a hybrid’s ability to withstand the rigors of long-term police work.
I have a 2015 Interceptor sedan, which has been one of the better patrol cars I’ve had over the past 21 years. It has a decent powertrain, with a transmission that goes into a performance-type mode when driving gets dynamic. It totally changes the car’s personality (think “Sport+” mode in a BMW).
While I understand the desire to be more efficient, I would want to know for sure that these powertrains were up to this severe-duty work. The single biggest concern we’ve faced over the years is cooling. The Gen-8 and -9 Impalas we used had cooling fan clutch problems that would shut down air conditioning if you idled too long (i.e., report writing, at crash scenes, etc.). This is particularly important for K9 vehicles, where this could endanger the dog. I understand the bottom line with regard to savings, but many of us prefer the simplicity of just a relatively large conventional engine that we know will be ready to go when we need it.
Thanks for the input, Chris. None of my relatives who were LEOs are active any longer, so I have no other way to get information about such things.
Keep in mind that the early generations of the Ford Hybrids have shown to be able to last for 300,000 miles of more in NYC taxi duty and NYC police car use of idling for long hours.
The Hybrid system is perfect for eliminating cooling system problems from extended idle. The A/C compressor is electrically powered, quite efficient and is powered by the traction battery. When we had a 2010 Fusion with Ford’s 2nd gen Hybrid system I did check engine on vs engine off when waiting for my wife to run into the store for “just one thing” with temps in the upper 90’s, 10 min later and the engine was only running about 30% of the time to keep the traction battery in the 25-75% of usable SOC range. Of course that was with no additional electrical items.
Meanwhile the engine’s cooling system can continue to shed engine heat thanks to the electric cooling fan which is running because the A/C compressor is also running. That means that coolant in the radiator is nice and cool, relatively speaking, for the engine to drink up for a quick temp drop, the next time it starts.
Priuses are used in Australia for taxi duty a lot now, and have proved spectacularly reliable, reliable in a way I never thought such a clever but complex idea could be. Conditions here vary, but in the north, it’s very much Florida temperatures, and there do not seem to be complaints.
Yup the bulk of taxis in Brisbane seem to be Camry Hybrids or Priuses nowadays. They seem to just keep on ticking. Toyota reliability is no myth.
We often used pickup trucks as MP vehicles in the 70s & 80s. Cop cars are rough on front suspensions. I can see where front drive cars may have a repair cost and availability disadvantage in that respect. Other than squirmy handling, most MPs liked the trucks. Good room and visibility. The only problem I remember was that the bench seats (truck or car) started falling apart where they were rubbed by the lanyard attachment loop used on the Army .45s.
Howard County MD (where I live) has a large Explorer fleet. There are Chargers, Tauruses and Vic police interceptors still in use but there seems to be more and more Explorers on the force.
It is nice that they break down the number of miles and what the savings are but I doubt a lot of police cars get anywhere near 20,000 miles per year(especially the smaller towns) Most police cars sit and idle for long periods of time. In fact a lot of police cars have an engine hours meter on them.
This is true, but it depends on how the vehicles are assigned and used. Traditional police agencies that run “hot” cars (at shift change, the officers hand the vehicle off to the oncoming shift, often without even turning them off) find they accumulate miles and hours quickly.
More and more agencies, however, are switching to what we call the “Indianapolis” plan. With that arrangement, the vehicle is assigned to me specifically, and no other deputies drive it. While the up-front cost is more to purchase the cars, they last significantly longer. This way, when I’m off duty, so is my patrol car. My county is roughly the size of Rhode Island, and regular front-line patrol cars easily last five years.
It all depends on the agency.
20,000 miles per year isn’t really that many miles per shift on a car that is hot seated. Ford is basing that on a car that is used for 2 shifts per day. The standard “full-time” working year is 250 days (5 days x 50 weeks). So 2 shifts per day would mean 20,000 miles/500 shifts = 40 miles per shift. Of course if an agency is hot seating a car it is probably rolling more than 5 days per week. So crank that up to 6.5 days per week and it is doing 650 shifts per year or 30 miles per shift. Use Ford’s 3.1 hrs of non idle time per shift and they are only averaging 10 miles per hour while actually moving.
At least around here the state patrol does the 1-man, 1-car plan, or “Indianapolis” plan as Chris calls it. So 20,000 miles per year/2000 working hours per year and you are only 100 miles per shift. 8hrs/shift and they only have to average 12.5 mph throughout the day. Right now I’m seeing 2013 Caprices and Utility Interceptors coming out of service with ~110k miles on the clock.
Here are a couple of recent Caprices from WSP.
https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=Main.Item&itemid=4889&acctid=8445
https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=Main.Item&itemid=4887&acctid=8445
The rural county in Michigan in which I grew up had a funding crisis re: Sheriff’s cars around 1999 or so. At the time, they were averaging 48,000 miles per year on a car, and the majority of the fleet, as I recall it, was approaching 200,000 miles. I’d be surprised if they’ve changed much re: how they use the cars.
We moved to Suzuki Grand Vitaras in the mid-’90s, along with the Nissan X-Trail – sedans are very rare in our local constabulary now, but throughout the ’80s and early ’90s Subaru sedans served us well. Currently any sedans that come into the force ‘shackle out’ in no time at all.
RCMP in my area use Tauruses (Taurii?) and Tahoes. Some of the local departments use Chargers though. As for Explorers, the only ones I know of are the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement ones (semi truck police).
It is not just the US, this is what the Israeli police is using…
Meanwhile, in Australia, it’s still all Commodores. Not sure if they all bought up big in the final production year or not. Replacements in the state of Victoria are apparently going to be……BMW 520 diesels. My oh my, they’d want to be getting a huge discount for that bulk purchase. Such cars retail here beginning at $80k AUD ($60kUSD), whereas I’m guessing the Holdens had cost at best $40kAUD ($29kUSD).
Not here in Queensland, but then we do things differently up here. Aurions seemed to take over as the police car of choice (although Commodores and Falcons remained as highway patrol) but now they’re almost all gone, replaced with…. Sonatas. Half the time, not even turbo ones. Plus iLoad vans everywhere.
20,000 miles a year for a police vehicle seems light to me, so the saving could be greater still.
The UK’s favourite police cars are BMW 5 series estates for motorway work and main road duties, Skoda Octavia estates (also popular for emergency first responders), Vauxhall Astras and Corsas for town duties. There was a plan a few years for national single source policy with Hyundai which doesn’t seem to have actually taken off yet. There are some variations – Essex will always use Ford for example, as it’s Ford’s home area.
The other factor in unmarked cars – growing in number and proportion and using just about everything from Skoda to BMW to Audi to Toyota to you name it, with blue lights hidden in grilles, windows, mirror housings and light clusters, often very effectively.