ON THE CUTTING EDGE: The Cruiser Of The Future
At a meeting of police chiefs in San Diego last week a prototype of the world’s first “purpose-built” police car, the Carbon E7, had them all ga-ga with its 300-horsepower bio-diesel-fueled power train, and such features as sensors for weapons of mass destruction, automatic license-plate scanners, bullet-proof doors and night vision capability.
Reports The Christian Science Monitor:
“It's really a homeland security machine, not a cop car,” says William Li, CEO of Carbon Motors in Atlanta.
Faster and "greener" than the standby Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, Carbon Motors' car is a bold entry for a start-up company challenging an increasingly fragmented auto market.
But for all its bluster – "a new brand of justice," the promo kit proffers – Carbon Motors will have to win over police officers, a notably conservative blue brotherhood that may not want to trade the vehicle they know for a custom-built one they don't. …
Carbon Motors – a collaboration among a small team of investors, engineers, and Georgia Tech – needs to sell about 20,000 cars to the 240,000-vehicle US law-enforcement fleet to warrant its proposed 2012 production run. …
Carbon's board of trustees include heavyweights such as Tom Ridge, former secretary of Homeland Security; 9/11 commission vice chair Lee Hamilton; and former New York Police Commissioner Lee Brown.
Wired magazine’s “Autopia” blog notes that merely seeing photos of the E7 turns “seasoned cops into giggling schoolgirls” (the post includes a link to a video of a 360o view of the prototype).
The sticker price has not yet been announced, so perhaps the giggles may turn into gasps.
I want one.
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