The first police vehicle of its kind in Washington State can be spotted on East Wenatchee roads now.
The electric F-150 Lightning made its debut in the Classy Chassis and Apple Blossom Parades over the weekend with police chief Rick Johnson behind the wheel.
Chief Johnson touts the battery life with all the truck’s bells, whistles and sirens.
“It was obviously charged up 100% for the Apple Blossom parade and Classy Chassis and running all of the equipment that we had inside, and all of the lights that go for two or three hours, took it down a couple percent. So, that seems to have virtually no impact on the battery life.”
Now the East Wenatchee Police Department will see how the truck fares on patrol.
“It’s fully marked, fully outfitted, it’s able to transport, it has the prisoner transport cages in the back, the storage boxes for patrol equipment, and it’s going to be on patrol with one of our sergeants.” Chief Johnson said.
The truck is part of a pilot program with the Douglas County Public Utilities District (PUD). The police department partnered with the PUD on the charging system and the graphics. They seek grant funding to expand the charging system.
Chief Johnson says the truck came at a nice price.
“We only paid $42,000 for that truck. If you go to buy one of those, they’re closer to $70,000. Now that truck fully outfitted and fully set up is $57,000 which is less than what we pay for the Ford utility hybrids.”
East Wenatchee Police have 23 vehicles in its fleet. Chief Johnson says time will tell whether we’ll see more electric police vehicles on the road.
“I don’t think it would be realistic for 100% but I think we could have a good percentage of our fleet,” Chief Johnson said. “I think this will show if the technology is ready to have a significant percentage of our fleet be E-V (electric vehicle).”
Classy Chassis Parade 2023