California cops who are trialing Teslas ahead of ban on gas vehicles say they are ‘nearly unusable’

California police officers who tried out Teslas ahead of the state’s ban on petrol and diesel vehicles have revealed they are ‘nearly useless’ for law enforcement.

Governor Gavin Newsom mandated in September 2020 that all vehicles sold in California must have zero emissions by 2035.

Since then, a number of local municipalities have implemented their own goals to convert their gas fleets to electric vehicles.

But police chiefs who have bought Teslas say the cars’ design is detrimental to police operations.

Among the California police departments that have attempted to use Teslas was the Ukiah Police Department, the largest municipal police force in Mendocino County.

There, on August 7, 2024, Police Chief Cedrick Crook asked the city council to approve the purchase of two Tesla Model 3s, the company’s sedan.

That purchase totaled nearly $150,000, between the cost of the cars and $35,000 in modifications to make the Teslas patrol-ready, Crook told the San Francisco Gate.

He said the vehicles needed the standard emergency lights, sirens, radio, antenna, push bar, partition and gun rack, but the Teslas also needed to be upgraded with ballistic panels to make them more rugged for the street.

The problem is there’s only one Tesla modification shop in the state: Unplugged Performance in Hawthorne, about 500 miles south of Ukiah.

Store officials said it would take months to make all the adjustments needed to get the vehicles ready for patrol.

In addition to the problems with the cars, only two Tesla Supercharger stations have been installed in the city in the past two years. It remains unclear how officers would charge the electric vehicles, Crook said.

He noted that police often have to transport suspects, witnesses or victims to trials or court hearings, which can be far away, and if detectives were to drive a Tesla, Crook said they would have to spend time at an unsecured public charging station while they the person.

He went on to say that the back seats “only have room for one inmate,” limiting an officer’s ability to detain suspects.

If the city only had a Tesla fleet, Crook said, incidents involving more than one suspect would require more officers to respond with more cars, straining police resources.

Crook also noted that he had heard from other officers that they could not comfortably get in and out of the driver’s seat with their seat belts on due to the car’s sleek design.

Those straps could weigh up to 25 pounds and enlarge an officer’s torso, he explained.

And in firefights, Crook says, officers are taught to hide behind a car’s engine block, but in Teslas there are no engine blocks.

Ultimately, he said, he bought the Model 3s just for administrative staff.

“I’m not ready to put a cop in a Tesla yet,” the police chief told the Gate.

Similarly, Menlo Park Police Chief David Norris ordered three Tesla Model Ys, which are slightly larger than the Model 3s, had them outfitted for patrol duties and conducted a study on the vehicle’s performance as a patrol car.

The study found that the Menlo Park Police Department “appreciated the acceleration, handling and vehicle speed compared to the hybrids and the remaining gasoline-only patrol vehicles.”

But, it said, “the Tesla posed challenges due to its small interior space, ‘smart car’ characteristics and low vehicle profile that limits maneuverability (e.g. over curbs and off-road use).”

It was also said that the partition between the front and rear seats reduced the available space in the front, where the center console, light controls and communications tablet are housed.

As a result, officers in full uniform had limited space in the front seat, with some officers saying their duty belts and body armor would protrude into the passenger seat “rendering it almost unusable.”

Officers also reported “autopilot interference,” which caused “a delay in shifting into drive” and triggered an automatic stop when officers attempted to pull over on the side of the road, possibly because the car assumed it was veering off course.

Making matters worse, Tesla’s touchscreen lighting controls required a laborious multi-step process to dim the lights at night, and the proximity lock, sleep mode, and self-closing doors caused problems with police blocking their patrol vehicles could keep locked.

Norris ultimately concluded that the Tesla Ys, in their current design, do not appear to be “patrol cars of the future,” although he noted that he remained committed to the goal of Menlo Park’s electric fleet.

One way to do that is by using other electric vehicles, such as the Ford F-150 Lightnings, which Fort Bragg police have been testing.

Chief Neil Cervenka said he chose these vehicles because the parts are readily available, as are the mechanics who can service the vehicle.

He also said modifications to the F-150s to make them patrol-ready are cheaper because there are more suppliers to choose from and more options.

“Tesla is not currently the right answer in the law enforcement market for electric adoption,” he said, “but there may be better options.”

DailyMail.com has reached out to Tesla for comment.