Some police departments in Southern California are already using Tesla Model Y electric vehicles as patrol cars. Now, Cybertrucks could be next, according to UP.FIT, a Hawthorne-based company that outfits police departments.
“I can confirm that we have several departments in California, specifically Southern California, that have expressed interest in ordering our new UP.FIT Next-Gen Patrol Cybertruck,” Fleet Director James Hedland told KTLA.
That’s all the company can say – for now. Hedland couldn’t reveal which departments have ordered Cybertrucks, due to contracts they have with their clients.
Recently, the company helped Anaheim’s police department by modifying a fleet of Tesla Y patrol cars as part of a pilot program.
“We had to seek out alternative vehicle options, which led us to explore utilizing Teslas as police vehicles,” Anaheim Police Chief Rick Armendariz said in an April press release.
The department had to turn to Tesla due to an international shortage of traditional police vehicles, and aging police fleets across the country.
UP.FIT specializes in fitting Teslas for fleet use and just introduced the world’s first Tesla Cybertruck police vehicle. The photos posted online have gone viral — with some commenters saying this is taking us one step closer to the types of police equipment seen in Sci-Fi films.
But UP.FIT says their goal is to help public safety officials around the globe.
“The UP.FIT Cybertruck Next-Gen Patrol vehicle represents a significant engineering leap into the future and we’re excited to offer law enforcement agencies the future of policing,” said Ben Schaffer, CEO of Unplugged Performance.
“We are designers and engineers, and we really take a lot of pride in making sure things are done at a high echelon level. We took time to engineer solutions to make our own parts– so we make our own brakes, suspension, wheels, all engineered by us,” Fleet Director, James Hedland, told KTLA.
Hedland also said, “We found Cybertrucks are actually bulletproof from the factory, and we can add to that, we can apply enhancements for fire rescue, search and rescue, and SWAT team engagement– and also day to day policing.”
The new patrol cars even getting a nod from Elon Musk himself on X (formerly Twitter).
UP.FIT is a global company, and has fulfilled orders across the country. They’re located on the SpaceX campus next to the Tesla design studio in Hawthorne.
Currently, UP.FIT has begun taking orders for the Cybertruck Next-Gen Patrol, with deliveries expected by late 2024.