The vans complete the process to renew the fleet of the Accident Investigation and Prevention Unit (UIPA), with a total of 14 new vehicles: the hybrid vans acquired last year and the new delivery of 10 wholly electric units. The corps currently has 584 motor vehicles, 249 of which are electric or non-plug-in hybrids.
The new vans have an electric range of between 196 and 285 kilometres and were acquired by Barcelona City Council through a five-year leasing contract worth around a million euros.
The idea is to facilitate a quick response time for getting around the city. The vehicles are 4.6 metres long and have an elevated chassis to favour driver accessibility and visibility for the general public.
This makes the vans smaller than the four presented last year, which are used as accident report vehicles thanks to the technological improvements they offer, such as a Crash Data Retrieval unit. This apparatus can read the driving parameters from an Event Data Recorder, which acts as a hard drive to store the last five seconds of data from the vehicles involved in the accident, as well as the status and correct activation of safety systems or actions taken by the driver.
All this recorded information, together with the visual inspection by officers at accident sites, is vital for compiling the corresponding reports by the City Police with all the details.
Towards more sustainable mobility
The City Police currently has 584 motor vehicles, 249 of which are electric or non-plug-in hybrids, accounting for 42.64% of the entire fleet of the corps. A further 36 wholly electric vehicles are being added this year (cars and mopeds) and the prevision is to gradually replace petrol-driven quads with electric ones.
This renewal forms part of the City Council’s goal of moving towards more sustainable mobility, fostering the use of hybrid and electric vehicles, reducing carbon dioxide emissions, noise and energy consumption.