The Albanian Police Force has become just the fifth police department in Europe to add all-electric models to its fleet of police cars.
On 6 October 2016 the country’s interior minister Saimir Tahiri announced that a large number of e-Golfs have been delivered to the police force and will be in use shortly. However, there is a problem – currently Albania doesn’t have a recharging network (unlike South Africa, which has a network that is still in its infancy, but at least is has one) or any fuel stations around any of its major cities. This means that the electric hatchbacks will have to return to their respective police stations every time they need to recharge.
New electric vehicle like the Chevrolet Bolt or updated Renault Zoe can travel almost 400km on a single charge, therefore not having a recharging network wouldn’t be quite as critical. The e-Golf however, has a range of between 130 and 190km meaning lots of trips back to the various Albanian police depots.
In July, both the Romanian and Austrian police forces took delivery of BMW i3s, joining Italy in the list of countries that use the German firm’s electric hatchback in their law enforcement agencies’ fleets.
Read about our experience driving the BMW i3 here.