This Tesla Model Y police car will soon be silently patrolling the streets of California

Until now, Californian firm Unplugged Performance has focused its efforts on offering more driving pleasure from every model of Tesla. Heck, it even built a wildly bewinged Model S Plaid race car driven by Randy Pobst at every Pikes Peak since 2021.

But this – as you might be able to tell – is a little bit different. Yep, it’s a Model Y police car, and it’s set to enter service in South Pasadena shortly as the city becomes the first in the US to replace its entire police car fleet with EVs.

Unplugged wants this to be a major part of its business in the future too. So much so, it's launched a whole new fleet division known as UPfit.

Now, UPfit makes some pretty big claims about the benefits of its Tesla over older-school Ford police cars. It reckons the Model Y costs $91,990 all-in once it has been bought and converted to law enforcement spec, whereas a Ford Police Interceptor Utility Hybrid is apparently $98,000. It also says that a non-hybrid Ford Police Interceptor Utility will burn 60 per cent of its fuel sat at idle while in action as a police car. Yikes.

As a result, UPfit reckons on a potential five-year cost saving of $27,012 when using the Model Y compared to a hybridised Ford.

“Selecting Tesla as the platform for our Patrol Vehicles is a testament to the unparalleled engineering excellence and proven performance they offer,” says James Hedland, director of fleet at Unplugged Performance. “By leveraging Tesla’s technology, we are proud to deliver law enforcement solutions that are not just cutting-edge but also reliable and sustainable, empowering officers to serve their communities with confidence.”

Sounds great, but there’s just one other thing that we would suggest Unplugged fits to the Model Y - a whopping great spoiler like the one on the Pikes Peak racer.