Bummer: Fremont Police Give Up On High Speed Chase When Tesla Runs Low On Power

There are certainly other ways police give up on high speed chases. Safety is one of them. You never hear about them giving up because they ran out of gas

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Fremont police Tesla runs low on juice during high-speed chase

The last thing a police officer trying to chase down a suspect in a high-speed pursuit needs to see is a warning that their patrol car is running low on gas — or on battery juice.

But that’s how it went down Friday night in Fremont — in a Tesla no less. A Fremont police officer pursuing a suspect while driving the department’s Tesla Model S patrol car noticed it was running out of battery power.

During the pursuit of a “felony vehicle” that started in Fremont and reached peak speeds of about 120 miles per hour on the highway, the officer driving the Tesla radioed in to dispatch that he might not be able to continue the chase he was leading.

“I am down to six miles of battery on the Tesla so I may lose it here in a sec,” Officer Jesse Hartman said.

Apparently, someone forgot to plug it up the previous day, and it’s not like you can just plug it up and have it fueled in 5 minutes like a reliable fossil fueled vehicle

However, shortly after Hartman called out the low juice warning, the person driving the car police were chasing began driving on the shoulder of the highway as traffic was thickening, prompting police to call off the roughly eight-minute chase at that moment for safety, according to police dispatch recordings on Broadcastify and a department spokeswoman.

So the Fremont cops pulled off the highway in San Jose and headed back to their city — but not before the officer in the Tesla made a pit stop.

“I’ve got to try to find a charging station for the Tesla so I can make it back to the city,” Hartman said over the radio.

The vehicle was later found crashed and the driver gone.

The used 2014 Tesla Model S is considered part of a pilot program, to determine whether electric vehicles are suitable for police use on a larger scale.

The department spent a tad over $61,000 to buy the car from Tesla in 2018 — which has its main manufacturing factory in Fremont — and spent over a year modifying the car to get it ready for police use, officially rolling it out in March.

The used Tesla cost approximately $20,000 more than a new Ford Explorer police vehicle that the department uses for its other patrol vehicles, though officials said they expect to save on fuel and maintenance costs over the long run with the Tesla.

Yeah, no.

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8 Responses to “Bummer: Fremont Police Give Up On High Speed Chase When Tesla Runs Low On Power”

  1. MrToad says:

    So they just called off the chase and said “to hell with it?” Was Hillary being pursued or something?

  2. John says:

    It was 5 years old ?
    Typical costs 40000
    It has a range of 300 miles after which it goes into limp mode top speed of 30 good for 100 miles
    How far do fossil fuel cop cars go on a tankful

    • formwiz says:

      Far enough and fast enough to catch the bad guys.

    • gitarcarver says:

      It has a range of 300 miles after which it goes into limp mode top speed of 30 good for 100 miles

      Wrong again John.

      The 2013 Tesla S has a range of 208 miles or up to 265 miles with an upgraded battery.

      Combined average mileage for a Ford Explorer is over 20 mpg with a 19.2 gas tank which is 384 miles.

      The biggest problem is going to be the additional drain on the batteries for the radios, radars, computers, LPR’s, etc which all cop cars have these days. The Explorer gets around with a larger alternator and a more powerful battery. So while the Tesla is sucking down energy for these accessories at a stop light (limiting the range even more) the Explorer chugs along.

      Once again, you show an amazing lack of knowledge. Combine that with your ignorance of statistics, it is better that you stay in your mom’s basement where she can cook you pizza rolls for dinner.

  3. John says:

    Yes they called off the chase because a high speed chase would endanger the public
    That is S.O.P.
    You must watch too much TV and movies

    • formwiz says:

      Keep telling yourself that because nobody else buys it.

      If the public is going to give you the power to control them, you’re going to have to keep the hoodla in line. That’s means no wussy little prowl cars.

    • Dana says:

      That isn’t what the various news reports stated; the reports stated that the chase was abandoned because the vehicle was nearly out of charge.

      Had the Tesla been plugged in the night before, that wouldn’t have happened. If a police cruiser isn’t fueled up at the end of the previous shift, the next shift can fuel up in ten minutes or less at the beginning of the shift. If the cruiser is an electric vehicle, the next shift will have to either take it out with the remaining battery power, or spend 1½ or more hours charging it at the beginning of the shift before they can take to the streets.

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