Police in the state of Lower Saxony will soon be able to sneak up silently on suspected perps, after the German state has purchased 215 Volkswagen ID.3 electric hatchbacks. The ID.3s ordered will be used in civilian spec so they won’t receive graphics and light bars, Volkswagen noted, but may carry other equipment such as a radio, siren system, and magnetic LED beacons by Hänsch GmbH and others. These EVs are expected to used by detectives and non-uniformed police staff in Lower Saxony.
The first 10 examples have been handed over to the police fleet this month in Hanover, at the headquarters of the state police. The police also placed an order for 175 Passat GTE plug-in hybrids, which will join a fleet of some 160 other examples of the Passat GTE in the state’s fleet. Volkswagen indicated that the order of 215 examples of the ID.3 hatchback is the largest so far in Germany, but noted that the city of Vienna, Austria, is currently testing examples of the ID.3 and ID.4 for police use as well.
“This decision in favor of Volkswagen is significant and can serve as a model for other authorities in Germany and beyond,” said Holger B. Santel, head of Volkswagen Germany. “We have a large number of offers and hope that other authorities in Germany and Europe will soon also increasingly rely on e-mobility.”
In some ways it’s not surprising that it took this long for a sizeable fleet of electric vehicles to be ordered by a state police agency in Germany—it wasn’t until relatively recently that a domestic manufacturer had begun building electric cars on a mass scale, with the ID.3 and ID.4 having entered production in Zwickau within the past 12 months. Specifically, city and state governments had been waiting for affordable, non-luxury EVs to enter production, instead of foreign EVs and luxury offerings from the likes of Audi. But now that Volkswagen has launched production of the ID.3 and ID.4 in Zwickau and is readying other affordable electric cars, we expect to see a major push from city and state governments and services.
The ID.3 hatch, despite having entered production before the ID.4, is not offered stateside, and is still not considered likely to land here in the near future. Volkswagen has staked the launch of its model range on a crossover, cognizant of the trends in the market in the U.S. at the moment, which still favor SUVs and crossovers.
The ID.3 is currently offered in three main battery ranges: 45-kWh, 58-kWh and 77-kWh (usable), offering ranges of 219, 265 and 341 miles in the WLTP cycle. The smallest of the three batteries gives it an output of 147 hp, while those who choose the mid-range battery can choose between 143- and 201-hp outputs. Those who opt for the top 77-kWh battery will also get a 201-hp output in their ID.3.
Curiously enough, Volkswagen has been reported to be working on models positioned below the ID.3 in size, so in the future we’re likely to see EVs that fill out the range with Polo and perhaps even Lupo-sized models badged as the ID.1 and ID.2, while the ID.3 plays the role of the electric Golf. And they could make it stateside, at least in theory, as VW continues to fill out its ID lineup through the rest of the decade.
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