BMW i3 Goes On Police Duty With Austrian Forces

BMW‘s electric compact hatch is seemingly becoming popular with police forces around the globe, and the latest to put it in its fleet is Austria.

The country’s authorities have chosen the zero-emission version, not the one with the internal combustion petrol engine that acts as a range extender, which this will put a mark on the time required to recharge its batteries.

The official EU range of the i3 is roughly 170 km (106 miles), but in the real world the car will be plugged in after 100-120 km (62-75 miles).

“It was important to give the police a decent tool at hand. The positive concept of BMW has convinced us. As a market town, we are aware of our role model. Therefore, we put e-mobility in the public domain“, said Thomas Oberbeirsteiner, mayor of the Austrian city of Wattens, where the BMW i3 will be used as a police car, cited by BMWBlog.

Austria isn’t, however, the first or the last country to adopt the BMW i3 as a police cruiser, as the car is already on duty in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, where one of the four examples was recently engulfed by flames. The largest customer order came from the Los Angeles Police Department, which will acquire 100 units.