Bernhard Witthaut, police president of the police department Osnabrück (on the island of Borkum) handed over to police director Johannes Lind, head of the police investigation Leer/Emden, the first electric police motorcycle in the deployment and patrol service in Germany at all.
Witthaut: “The new police emergency vehicle combines innovation, ecology and practicability, and is also an excellent fit for the island region. Electromobility is an important key to the sustainable transformation of mobility at the police force.”
Both Police President Witthaut and police director Lind were pleased to be the first police officers in Germany to implement such an electric vehicle on two wheels in police daily life. In the future, the police staff members employed on the island will be able to reach the rugged terrain better and faster, for example, in the search for missing persons or other situations without affecting the particular aspects of the island such as nature, environmental protection and tourism.
Depending on how the electric motorcycle on Borkum is evolving, further procurements are conceivable, according to Witthaut. In a first two-week test in early March, the new police vehicle on Borkum had already made a positive impression, according to Jörg Heitner, head of the police station Borkum.
Zero FX 6.5
The purchase price for the offroad Zero FX 6.5 (Enduro) amounted to around 13,000 euros. Because of the low maintenance and inspection costs, the running costs are very acceptable. The motorcycle is almost silent, weighs only 130 kilograms and accelerates from 0 – 100 km/h in four seconds. The range of the battery is 70-80 kilometers and is recharged in three hours. Thanks to the good cooperation between the various authorities and the electric motorcycle dealer Alwin Otten GmbH from Meppen (Emsland county), it took only three months from the idea to the delivery of the first battery electric vehicle. The company Otten was not only responsible for the delivery of the motorcycle, but also for the coordination in cooperation with the police department in Osnabrück. These included not only a special paint design with the Police colours, but also a triple corrosion protection varnish as well as an additional waterproofing of the electronics due to the increased salt content in the air of Borkum. Special tires and a top case were mounted as well.
In all of Niedersachsen, the police owns 38 electric and hybrid vehicles, 19 electric bicycles and 46 charging stations. At the end of November 2016, the Minister of Interior and Sports, Boris Pistorius, approved the project “silent & ready to use”. Within the scope of the three-year research project, the Lower Saxony Police and the Lower Saxony Research Center for Automotive Engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig are developing an important guideline for the integrated planning and control of fleet, cargo and energy infrastructure. The research is carried out on the basis of 50 hybrid and pure battery electrical police cars as well as 30 loading columns.
Source: Press release Polizeidirektion Osnabrück | Alwin Otten GmbH >
