Can an EV Make a Good Police Car? We Test Unplugged Performance’s Cop Tesla

A police car isn’t really a car—it's a tool. How police departments decide what vehicles to put in their fleets is totally different from how you go about choosing your daily driver. It’s a tactical decision, where considerations of comfort, fun, or cool factor are handcuffed in the back seat behind effectively and conveniently enforcing the law. For one department, the answer to these potentially life-or-death questions is the Tesla Model Y.

Is that really such a surprise? Think about it—like every popular police car, the Model Y is utilitarian, ubiquitous, and American. It's designed for high functionality and engineered for capable performance, all with styling that fades into the background, predisposing it to patrol duty. For police cars, the benefits of electric driving could outweigh any drawbacks—and no, running out of battery during a chase isn’t a concern.

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The UP.Fit Tesla Model Y

Longtime Tesla aftermarket tuner Unplugged Performance has developed police upfit kits through its aptly named UP.Fit division. As if the notion of a police EVwasn’t outlandish enough, UP.Fit also aims to disrupt how vehicles are built for duty. “UP.Fit vehicles are turnkey products re-engineered for police use,” said company founder Ben Schaffer, who further explained, “Our vision is to create a repeatable, consistent, complete vehicle for police departments. We inventory and resell new Teslas on manufacturer’s certificate of origin that are equipped with an UP.Fit buildout. This varies in comparison to the incumbent model in which a partially finished vehicle is then procured and localized to dispersed outfitters who bolt on a mix of upgrades without a consistent finished product.”

Given how alien EVs likely seem to most police departments, UP.Fit aims to derisk and streamline the transition from procurement to after-sales support. The company’s motorsports engineering experienceand close relationship with Tesla corporate means it knows the Model Y inside and out. “Our long-term R&D program resulted in architectural changes that aren’t found when taking a Tesla and bolting on flashing lights and push bumpers,” Schaffer said.

Hardware includes pursuit-ready wheels and tires, and braided steel brake lines filled with high-temperature fluid. The UP.Fit Model Y gains custom-formed ballistic door panels among requisite equipment like spotlights, a megaphone, prisoner partition, and long gun carrier. A redesigned center tunnel houses controls for this accoutrement. Although the motors and battery are unaltered, UP.Fit changed software like power-on parameters for more reliable uptime, along with adding its own fleet management system.

If the UP.Fit treatment seems relatively minor, it’s because the company sees the Model Y as having enough performance to begin with. Schaffer notes the “delicate nature of handling taxpayer money on a fixed budget to get the job done” for why his team hasn’t endeavored to add more modifications. At about $100,000, the UP.Fit version approximately doubles the price of a base Model Y Dual Motor Long Range.

The result is, simply, a Tesla Model Y cop car, and simple is what UP.Fit aims for as it offers its wares in a demanding niche. Yet the process of developing the package wasn’t easy and required a police partner to test and iterate under real-world conditions.

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The First All-Electric Police Car Fleet

Electric vehicles are common on the cozy, tree-lined streets of South Pasadena, a suburb of Los Angeles, so much so that it’s almost unsurprising the city’s police patrol fleet is composed of UP.Fit Model Ys. But this place wasn’t always so green. Sergeant Tony Abdalla grew up in South Pasadena and has worked for its police department for more than 30 years. He recalls days in his childhood when smog was so thick that citywide alerts compelled residents to shelter indoors. Those days are done thanks to environmental standards tightening across industries, as South Pasadena’s efforts have yielded local air quality improvements: Since 2005, the city has had a policy of purchasing only low-emissions vehicles for its fleet.

That policy sparked an assessment period for the police department that spawned oddities such as the classic Ford Crown Victoriaconverted to run on natural gas, as well as some early EVs. But a suitable electric option didn’t arrive until 2019, when Tesla unveiled the Model Y. This compact electric crossover was almost revolutionary. “Form factor was a big draw. Tesla seemed like the most mature, reliable, safe, and high-performance option and also had access to the most dependable and widespread charging network,” Abdalla said about the department’s considerations for choosing an EV.

What followed was a years long evaluation of whether the Model Y could meet police needs. In that time the department worked closely with Unplugged Performance, which had already established itself as a leading supplier for aftermarket Tesla upgrades. “Since there were so many firsts in this program,” Abdalla said, “it was important to identify and retain the services of experts in this space.” Unplugged Performance’s motorsports background appealed since “performance characteristics are super important” to Abdalla and his colleagues. Simultaneously the department examined other electric crossovers that were created to rival the Model Y, but all had “various dealbreakers,” according to Abdalla, such as range or crash safety that made Tesla come out on top for the cops.

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The vehicle was chosen, but the deal wasn’t done: The department had to convince South Pasadena city council that the UP.Fit Model Y was the solution for its future. It sought to procure 20 vehicles from UP.Fit—split between Model Ys kitted for patrol, along with relatively civilian-spec Model 3s for administrative work—on an open-ended lease, along with hardware necessary to keep them charged at the department’s downtown headquarters.

Beyond the environmental benefit, money ultimately swayed the decision. “Our fuel budget from 2022 to 2023 was about $120,000,” Abdalla said. “For 2023 to 2024, it’s now $50,000 and trending lower as we integrate more sustainable electricity.” Minimal maintenance(“It’s just tires, wiper fluid, and cabin air filters,” Abdalla said) also eases expenditures while increasing uptime.

Charging was vital for the department to implement into its policies—running out of battery simply isn’t an option. Conveniently, there’s a 20-stall Supercharger station about a mile away from the headquarters. But with 16 ChargePoint Level 2 plugs installed and a dual-port Level 3 charger under construction in the department’s secure lot, there’s always space for vehicles to charge while others are on patrol. Typically, each officer covers 30 to 90 miles over their 12-hour shift, well within the Model Y’s 310-mile EPA range rating. Plus, there’s always the possibility to join forces with other Los Angeles–area police departments should a scenario exceed the UP.Fit Model Y’s capabilities. But that hasn’t happened.

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UP.Fit Model Y Tested—Crooks, Beware

If anything, other departments might envy South Pasadena’s cars. Officer Isaac Gutierrez doesn’t think EVs are right for every driver (he owns a Honda Accord) but finds the UP.Fit Model Y an effective and enjoyable patrol vehicle. “There’s much more power than the gas cars I’m used to,” Gutierrez said. “The steering is so precise. And of course, regenerative braking is a benefit only EVs can provide.” With this level of connection and control, the UP.Fit Model Y feels as alert as an officer must be when hunting crime. Gutierrez recalled a high-speed pursuit in rainy weather where the suspect had no chance of shaking his UP.Fit Model Y. “It’s a confidence-inspiring drive,” he said. “You’d need a fast car to get away from us in these.”

How fast? We ran the UP.Fit Model Y through our testing regimen to find out.

Like the Model Y Dual Motor Long Range in our long-term review fleet, the UP.Fit Model Y makes 384 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque from its dual-motor, all-wheel-drive electric powertrain. Despite its added hardware, the UP.Fit version gains less than 200 pounds over the stock Model Y, with some of that attributed to the wheels and pursuit-rated tires that could slightly dull acceleration; the UP.Fit Model Y hit 60 mph in 4.9 seconds, behind the 4.5-second time we got out of the unmodified Model Y. Likewise, its 13.3-second, 108.2-mph quarter mile barely trails the 12.9-second, 112.9-mph pass from the civilian version; the external additions create some aerodynamic drag. In handling tests, the UP.Fit Model Y’s 0.88 g average skidpad grip and 25.5-second, 0.75 g average figure-eight lap are essentially identical to our long-termer. Those tires could contribute to a 60–0-mph stopping distance of 116 feet, 2 feet fewer than the stock Tesla. Despite the fortified brakes, our test team noted the car threw an overheat warning after a few repeated hard stops, although UP.Fit says this is due to the Tesla's native firmware not knowing the brakes have been changed from stock.

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What’s immediately clear behind the wheel of the UP.Fit Model Y is that it drives just like a Model Y. It has the same immediate acceleration, strong regen, sharp steering, and jittery ride. The changes made for police duty appear obvious, but nothing differentiates it from behind the wheel.

That’s high praise when compared to vehicles common in the nation’s law enforcement fleets.UP.Fit brought a Ford Explorer Police Interceptor Utility owned by a local department for us to evaluate back to back with its Model Y, and the differences are stark.It’s trounced by the Tesla—less grip, longer braking, and much slower acceleration. At odds with a common anti-EV trope, it’s considerably heavier than the UP.FitModel Y, too (albeit understandably—it’s a larger midsize three-row SUV).

This isn’t to suggest that the Ford drives badly. Its steering is crisp for a mainstream SUV, although how the chassis responds to directional changes isn’t nearly as cohesive as the UP.Fit Model Y. However, the Ford rides more comfortably.Its transmission shifts snappily and will hold gears at redline in pedal-down driving, but the amount of time it needs to get moving and rev into its power band seems massively delayed compared to the instant-on EV.

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Pros Outweigh Cons, With Improvements to Come

Gutierrez said there was a “generational divide” among South Pasadena’s officers as to who warmed to the department’s UP.Fit Teslas, but now that all are accustomed to EV driving, “the consensus is that people prefer the Model Y.” He noted other important benefits. “Traditional police training says to take cover behind the engine in a firefight, but that’s not necessarily ideal,” Gutierrez said. “Different parts of the engine resist gunfire better than others. Our Model Y’s ballistic door panels are a consistent protective shield, so getting behind those is safer.” The motorized joystick-controlled external spotlights UP.Fit installs are much easier to manipulate than the traditional manual equivalents on the Ford Explorer Police Interceptor Utility. He also liked having so many controls contained within the touchscreen, along with how it improves street-level awareness by imaging nearby vehicles and pedestrians.

However, the officers never use any of the Tesla’s driver assist or autonomous features: “There’s too much liability, and we want to be in complete control,” Gutierrez said. Deactivating the automatic emergency braking system is necessary before every drive, lest it interferes with completing a PIT maneuver.

There are other ways the UP.Fit Model Y can still be improved for law enforcement duty. Although the driver’s seat is comfortable, it’s not shaped to accommodate a duty belt, and UP.Fit’s custom center console can still be iterated upon to add space for a holstered pistol. Since integrating police database and connectivity features into the Tesla's native touchscreen isn't possible, an auxiliary laptop mobile data terminal is necessary. It adds some clutter to the cabin, albeit not more than what's typical in gas-powered police cars.

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Here to Stay?

The electric vehicle industry is in a state of turmoil. Environmental imperatives find themselves at odds with consumer preferences, and governmental guidance is opaque, all in a context of rapidly advancing technological capabilities.

Yet as the South Pasadena police department is proving, EVs area viable solution for driving conditions that are always demanding and often dangerous. Meanwhile, transitioning to an electric fleet is bringing measurable benefits to the area’s residents in the form of cleaner air and use of taxes, particularly when you consider how much time cop cars spend sitting stationary, idling, something that’s less costly when there’s no engine running.

As other municipalities learn from South Pasadena’s experiment with UP.Fit Model Ys, it might not be long until Teslas begin rounding up bad guys in your neighborhood, too.

*Without police package equipment **Before any rebates or incentives