Carbon Motors got our attention last fall when it announced its intention to build the Carbon E7
, a purpose-built police car. The thinking behind the E7 is that because it's designed from the ground up for use by police professionals, it eliminates many of the compromises inherent in retrofitting dinosaur Ford Crown Victorias and even modern Dodge Chargers
.
Just like those cars, it's rear-wheel-drive, but it uses aluminum unibody architecture -- a never heard-of extravagance on a vehicle dedicated to public service. The Carbon E7 is the same length as the Charger (200 inches), but rides on a longer wheelbase (122 inches) and a much wider track (66.9 inches front and rear). For efficiency's sake, it dispenses with gasoline V8 power and uses a 3.0-liter turbodiesel engine (we assume it's a six, but Carbon won't yet disclose the cylinder count).
The company says it's testing working prototypes right now and plans to have E7s available for instrumented testing by the press in 18 months. Pricing will be announced in the fourth quarter of 2009, says Carbon Motors spokesman Stacy Dean Stephens, with production beginning in calendar-year 2012.
In the meantime, Carbon has created an elaborate website where law enforcement agencies can already preorder an E7. Follow the jump to see video, photos and more details on the Carbon E7 police car.
The E7's turbodiesel engine is rated at a claimed 300 hp and 420 pound-feet of torque, and a six-speed automatic drives the rear wheels. Carbon claims it will hit 60 mph in 6.5 seconds and go through the quarter-mile in 14.5 seconds at 98 mph. Top speed is said to be 155 mph. Combined city/highway fuel economy will be 28-30 mpg, says Carbon.
Brakes are large, with 14-inch vented discs in front and 13-inch vented discs in back. The E7 wears 18-by-8-inch steel wheels with 245/50R18 tires. Thusly equipped, Carbon says the 4,000-lb car will stop from 60 mph in 125 feet and pull 0.85g on a skidpad. This is more impressive when you consider that the Carbon E7 sits 7 inches off the ground -- a good 2 inches higher than the Charger. You can read more specs here.
If you watch the video below, you'll see that there are just as many features inside the car that Carbon touts as competitive advantages.
Because it was engineered in this century, the cockpit allows seamless integration of whatever computer hardware and software a law enforcement agency might require. In addition, a full partition between the front and rear seats reduces contact with arrested suspects. A drainplug in the floor allows you to hose out the backseat as necessary after off-loading the occupants.
Cost is a big question here. Carbon says the E7 will be priced comparably to the police-version of the Charger, but aluminum space frames aren't exactly cheap, so we're skeptical. The company also promises lower running costs, but if diesel prices remain high, that advantage might be squeezed, too. Finally, unlike old Crown Vics, the Carbon E7 can't exactly be auctioned off to recoup costs at the end of its service life.
"We don't want these vehicles getting into the public's hands," Stephens told us. "We will offer law enforcement agencies a couple different solutions: They have the ability to sell them to other agencies and we will help facilitate that sale. Or, we will take the car back at the end of its life. We will either refurbish it and resell it, or if there's no useful life left on it, we will dismantle and recycle it to the extent possible."
firstwagon says:
05:30 PM, 02/ 5/09
Even if they had contracts to outfit every police department in North America, it hard to believe they could sell this car for less then twice the price of a Hemi Charger.
No matter how good it is, money talks when your spending taxpayers money.
cwc1 says:
05:37 PM, 02/ 5/09
Interesting idea, which sounds like it would have some advantages, in theory. But I wonder how they'll be able to keep the costs down - not just because of the aluminum frame, but would they be able to sell these in enough volume to get the economies of scale that makes the current ones affordable? I would think that GM, Ford, and Chrysler have a whole lot more cars to spread the costs around, since Tahoes, Crown Vics and Chargers are sold to consumers *and* fleets.
the_big_al says:
06:21 PM, 02/ 5/09
Very interesting idea. It will be interesting to see if these can be made cost effectively and to have a dealer service network setup as well. Will all the customizing that has to be done to current ones, the price isn't all that cheap after the purchase of the vehicle and the retrofit, so if they can manage to come under that, it would probably make a lot of local governments look a little closer at them.
ctpax says:
06:23 PM, 02/ 5/09
in the end it will come down to the question "is it worth spending so much money on these cars and how much the efficiency of police officers will improve"?
I'm sure that the number of criminals getting caught will not change with the introduction of these cars. Thus I predict this car will be a failure.
billt9 says:
07:07 PM, 02/ 5/09
Who the heck is Carbon Motors? And if they're new, how will they be able to make the car reliable so that it doesn't require frequent maintenance and repair, which would drive up costs much faster than fuel prices?
steve_ says:
07:15 PM, 02/ 5/09
I bet they make one for the consumer market too. The Carbon Copy....
cruiserhead1 says:
10:35 PM, 02/ 5/09
interesting ideas but you could retrofit most of those ideas onto a production car for a lot less money.
Also, for a Police-specific vehicle, it sure looks ordinary. The interior could be a lot more useful and a lot of details are gratuitous and not well thought out- like the bumpers... tall pushers are good but in between is all plastic?
although an interesting idea, and chock full of hype...i predict failure.
tjbeck says:
04:58 AM, 02/ 6/09
As long as they make it different enough to spot head-on or in a rear-view mirror from over a mile away, I'm happy. If they decide to give it the same front-on profile as, say, a Honda Civic, I'm screwed.
ne1butu2 says:
03:36 PM, 02/ 6/09
Needs more LEDs.
ne1butu2 says:
03:37 PM, 02/ 6/09
Needs more LEDs.
allthingshonda says:
05:46 PM, 02/ 7/09
I wonder how much that aluminum frame is going to cost to fix after a pit maneuver, or after it gets rammed in a pursuit.