Kolkata Police to switch to electric vehicles: 226 Tata Nexon Electric SUVs ordered

After Kerala Police and MVD, West Bengal’s Kolkata Police have decided to switch to electric vehicles. Kolkata Police will buy and induct as many as 226 units of Tata Nexon EV to replace its ageing fleet of vehicles that are more than 15 years old. Kolkata Police will get the cars on lease and the replacement will happen gradually over a period of time.

The electric vehicles will come for a period of eight years in the first phase. The vehicles will be distributed in various departments of Kolkata Police force. Even the traffic police department and wireless section of the force will get the new Nexon EVs.

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The deputy secretary, home and hill affairs department, confirmed the allotment of Rs 8.82 crore for the project. This is not the first electric vehicle that Kolkata Police will induct in its garage. A few years ago, they bought a few units of the Mahindra e2O electric hatchback for limited use on areas like Rabindra Sarobar and Subhas Sarobar areas. The police will try to keep the pollution level as low as pollution in such areas where the citizens come for morning walks and jogs.

Tata claims that the Nexon EV can do 312 km on a full charge. It is ARAI tested range and in the real world, the range drops depending on the driving conditions. The EV can be charged through home wall 15A socket and it takes about 8 hours to charge. Through the fast DC charging socket, the car takes about 60 minutes to charge up to 80 per cent. Also, it gets the energy recovery system that activates by itself when the vehicle is coasting.

More than 4000 vehicles

Kolkata Police force has more than 4,000 vehicles including the two-wheelers. Out of all the vehicles, odd 200 vehicles are more than 15 years old and will be discarded by the department.

“Initially, the electric vehicles will be given to traffic guards and other units which usually do not run a vehicle for more than 100km a day. As they need to be recharged periodically, we have to find out which units they are best suited to serve. We have calculated that the average cost of electricity consumed by an electric vehicle should be between Rs 0.90 and Re 1 for every kilometre. On the other hand, the average fuel cost of a diesel or petrol-powered vehicle is around Rs 8.5 per kilometre,”

Mahindra TUV300 added to the fleet too

Kolkata Police inducted as many as 58 new PCR vans. All the PCR vans are marked and get the Kolkata Police decals and flashers on the rooftop. All the inducted vehicles also get a Public Announcement system installed inside the vehicle. Other changes to the interior have been done to add the various equipment used by the cops. No other changes have been done to the vehicle and even the mechanicals like the engine remains in the stock form.

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