Carbon Motors E7: The Future Of Police Cars?
Motoring Channel Staff - 14/October/2008
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Carbon Motors E7 Police Car
The E7 Police Car has a certain menace
Carbon Motor's custom license plates not included
The rear doors open barn-style, adding practicality
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Atlanta, America — It's general practice for police forces to use locally made civilian cars for law enforcement purposes. These
everyday cars, such as the Holden Commodore in Australia or the Ford
Crown Victoria in the United States, are retrofitted with various
additions to make them ready for active duty; flashing lights, police
decals, computer link-ups. But now Carbon Motors Corporation has come up with a purpose-built police car called the E7. From the outset the design brief was focussed on policing and protection rather than civilian niceties. In
a similar vein to a fire-truck, which is specifically designed to
fight fires with advanced equipment, so too is this vehicle designed
for police work. Designed with voluntary input from almost 2,000
law enforcement professionals, some of the features of the E7 include
integrated external and internal surveillance capabilities, the
inclusion ofradar and LoJack security. As the images reveal,
the E7 is decked out with more LEDs than a rave party, supplying the
car with 360° emergency lighting making it highly visible. It looks a bit like a Saab 9-5 crossed with a Chrysler 300C Another
concern for police fleets nowadays is carbon output and fuel costs, as
larger cities can have car fleets into the thousands of vehicle. This
is why the E7 makes use of a powerful turbo diesel engine that can
run on biodiesel as well. Some of the other built-in features of
the vehicle include an automatic license plate recognition system, and
a new touch-screen interface called ORCA (On-board Rapid Command
Architecture). It two touch screen displays for rapid information
searches, one main display and the other a touch screen keyboard. Carbon Motors has even hardwired radiation and biological threat detectors into the vehicle. The rear doors open barn style, facilitating perpetrator detention and potentially enabling rolling gun battles. At
present the vehicle is being showcased across America to various police
forces, but one issue that standard civilian cars have over police-only
vehicles such as the E7 is the resale factor. Because all the
police functions are built in to the Carbon Motors E7, recouping some
of the initial outlay from the auction of used police vehicles after
three years is much less likely than a traditional
civilian-based police vehicle. Related Links:
- Corvette ZR1 Police Car (2009)
- Caparo T1 RRV: World's Fastest Police Car (2007)
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