Victoria is gearing up to replace highway patrol Holden Commodore V8s with high-powered, police-only Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
Police there also have a Tesla Model X – the first police district in Australia to put a fully electric vehicle into service.
The police Mercedes-Benz All-Terrain E400d 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo diesel is not available to the public and has almost twice as much power as the showroom version but uses about a third of the Commodore’s fuel.
The latest additions mean most states have nearly completed retiring their remaining fleets of Australian-made Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore pursuit cars, CarAdvice reports.
About 20 E400ds are expected to be patrolling this summer, more coming as the Holdens are gradually retired.
It will have the latest speed detection and drug detection equipment, along with cameras which read car number plates anytime to detect wanted vehicles or drivers in split seconds.
Victoria Police have tested several Mercedes vehicles on their highway patrol fleet in recent years like the GLE 63 SUV (codenamed Guardian) and E43 AMG sedan on loan for a year.
“The (E400d) vehicles will be among those replacing the current Holden Commodore SS wagons, which will be phased out progressively as they approach the end of their lease,” road policing command superintendent John Fitzpatrick says.
“We look at a number of factors when selecting vehicles to join our fleets and the (Mercedes E400d) stood out as being fit-for-purpose and above all, safe.”
Victoria Police already have BMW 5 Series sedans, BMW X5 SUVs and Volkswagen Passats and will add BMW 5 Series vehicles to the highway patrol early next year.
NSW Police use BMW 5 Series turbo diesel sedans and Chrysler 300 SRT V8s, while Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory are trialling the Kia Stinger turbo V6.
South Australian police have Holden Commodore V6 all-wheel-drive sedans and Kia Sorento SUVs for traffic duties, while the Australian Capital Territory has VW Passat vehicles and BMWs.
Tasmanian police are trialling all-wheel-drive Subaru Liberty sedans.
Some police fleets also include several special purpose vehicles, but very few electric or hybrid vehicles are featured at this stage.
