NYC Buys 184 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT Police Cars for $11.5 Million
First taxis, now police cars — the Ford Mustang Mach-E faces a huge test in the Big Apple.
This statement is bound to inflame some passions, but nonetheless remains technically true. After almost three decades, America finally has another official Ford Mustang police car, heir to the legendary Fox body SSP from the 1980s, in the form of the electric Ford Mustang Mach-E. And now we're about to see just how well it does in the real world, as New York City just placed an $11.5 million order for 184 Mach-E GT cruisers.
The city's Department of Citywide Administrative Services announced the news in a release on Wednesday, saying that the vehicles would be used by the NYPD, Department of Environmental Protection and various other local agencies. NYC runs the largest municipal fleet in the country at around 30,000, about a fifth of are NYPD "light duty enforcement" vehicles. Ergo, 184 vehicles is a drop in the bucket — but it's still a significant moment, not to mention a lot of cash.
To try to ensure it doesn't all go to waste — see the LAPD's dashed plans to turn the BMW i3 into a police car — NYC also plans to install 275 additional fast chargers around the city for municipal EVs to use in 2022, with the goal of quadrupling that number by the end of the decade.
Now, there's one big difference between the i3 and the Mustang Mach-E here — Ford's actually marketing and building the Mach-E as a police car, though the model it's been touting is still technically a "pilot" vehicle without an official name like SSP or Police Interceptor. As such, Ford hasn't released details about what modifications separate police duty GTs from their civilian counterparts, so we'll see how it holds up to a punishing environment like New York City's streets. Regardless, the Mach-E GT is plenty capable: 480 hp, 600 lb-ft, AWD and over 270 miles of range.
