Coming Soon to a Showroom Near You

[SecTrainer]

In the next couple of years, you'll be seeing more and more vehicles like this one, which reportedly will be on the market in 2008. It's not hard to envision the FighterCar as a security vehicle in a variety of roles.

The FighterCar will come out in 3 versions - two hybrids and one all-electric. If the performance specs are accurate, even the all-electric is no slouch. The FighterCar is a two-seater, which is good, and it also looks good, which is NOT unimportant.

We will need this sort of vehicle in the VERY near future as rising gas prices will make it absolutely imperative for patrol services to find cost-efficient alternatives to "traditional" vehicles. These alternatives, for good business reasons, should not look like oversized rollerskates, as many of the existing tiny hybrids and electrics do now. From what I'm seeing here, it soon will not be necessary for you to choose between fuel efficiency or going out on patrol in what the public will widely perceive as being a "clown car".

Incidentally, this site is interesting for a lot of other links to concept cars, hovercraft, personal flying vehicles, submersibles, communication/computing devices, etc, etc....some of which will certainly come to market. The links at the bottom of the page are different on every page you surf to, so you could follow them for quite awhile. Plus, there are often links to other interesting things within the articles themselves.

For instance, check out this three-wheeler Hawk.

And the Piaggio MP3...

Enjoy! I just love this kind of stuff!

[FireEMSPolice]

I hope I NEVER see that in our small fleet. Its bad enough we have an 07 Honda CR-V with a vinyl cloud wrap around it as a rolling billboard for a dealership. We dont need more unsafe junk.

[SecTrainer]

I hope I NEVER see that in our small fleet. Its bad enough we have an 07 Honda CR-V with a vinyl cloud wrap around it as a rolling billboard for a dealership. We dont need more unsafe junk.

Well, police departments and security agencies use motorcycles, obviously, and for good reasons. This vehicle, in case you didn't read the description, has a full roll cage, and is 33 times safer than a motorcycle. Plus, it offers all-weather protection. If it comes to market, or something like it, as is almost certain, my bet is that you'll see PDs snapping them up because this is a definite improvement over the "standard" motorcycle. Security companies will be right behind the PDs, and lots of other fleets will use them also. Heck, if you told me that a taxi company tried a few of these, particularly in for short trips in congested areas, that wouldn't surprise me at all. In fact, this would be very "cool" to some passengers and I'd put a few of them on the road if I owned a taxi company.

Like any other vehicle, it won't be applicable everywhere or in all circumstances, but I really wouldn't be so instantaneously dismissive of it. It took you exactly 7 minutes to form your judgment, including download time, the time to examine the information, presuming you did that instead of just glancing at the picture, and then the time to write and post your reply. We owe fellow forum members the courtesy of thoughtful consideration rather than knee-jerk reactions.

[ChuckyZ73]

Looks Sweet! Don't be a hater.

[officerchick]

Where do I sign up? I'll take one of each, please

[N. A. Corbier]

Not everyone can afford to fleet out a Tesla Roadster.

[The Hussard]

It look like the attack bike of NOD in Command and Conquer Tiberium sun

[bpdblue]

Just my opinion.

I write this post purely for those in management at companies that might think of buying vehicles like this for their companies when the vehicles become available. I believe that you need to look at all aspects of your companies responsibilites to your clients, and employees to determine if they are the best for you. Do these vehicles have a place with your company. MAYBE. But, consider the following:

I agree that as gas prices go up that companies, including in the security field, will need to look for ways to cut costs, and hybred, or pure electric vehicles are a logical step to take. I know alot of people want something nice, or possibly a police(y) looking vehicle, but to be fair to the companies, those wishes should not be in the fore-front of their thought process in purchasing vehicles. The safety of the people riding in the vehicles is the most important, followed by (not necessarily in the following order) price, fuel economy, ect.

The two seat vehicles in the article look nice, but have (what appear) to be some drawbacks to security work, and are, in my opinion, unsuitable for police patrol work.

In regard to security work, they are very low to the ground and do not appear to give a reasonable field of view for patrolling. Additionally, spotlights would be much less useful, and carrying other personnel (other than the driver and one passenger) would be a thing of the past.

In regard to police work, the height issue also seems to prevent a reasonable view needed for the job. I think most police officers want alot more metal around them. Since the police are involved in pursuits, at high speeds, and traffic collisions are a real possibility, the larger vehicle has a better chance of survival in a traffic collision than a small one. Motorcycle riding officers know that odds are good they will crash during their career, and so do most of their departments, which is why motor cops often get hazardous duty (or something similar) pay.

Drawbacks for both security and police work, in addition to those listed above, would be (that it appears) you would be a sitting duck in the vehicle until you could pop the top and climb out, and that climbing out looks like it would be difficult in itself. If you were wearing all your gear, how easy would it be to get out?

I think that a standard vehicle configuration (sedan or coupe) is still needed for most situations in our job. The gas milage is quite high for a standard hybred, and will get better as technology progresses.

[N. A. Corbier]

Remember, though. Most of the security companies buying cars out there are buying the cheapest thing they can, as well as the furthest thing from a CVPI that they can.

They do this to both save money and get away from the "wannabe police" image that the public assigns to anyone but old people driving a Crown Victoria.

I believe its that kind of company that will jump on the electric bandwagon while the electrics are still poised towards the "eco-hippie" set. Look at the designs for a lot of eco-friendly vehicles. I'm not talking about E85 FlexFuel cars here. I'm talking about the the prototype or the Prius or whatever.

I've noticed that a lot of people who jump on the electric bandwagon are the kind of people who say things like:

I only have this electric car cause the BART doesn't go everywhere.

I only have this electric car because I can't bike in the rain.

I only have this electric car because ...

In other words: I don't want to be caught dead in a car, because they're helping to rape the Earth, but I can't help it. I'm sorry, but at least I made up for it by buying a Prius.

And I think the car companies know this, and market towards it. After all, if the electric or hybrid is a niche car, then they have some time to retool their processes and gradually introduce electrics. If everyone wanted one right now... They'd be screwed.

I mentioned it above, but I'd love to have a Tesla Roadster. Its completely quiet, completely electric, and completely bad ass. Its Batman's electric car. Its not a car for people who have to apologize for owning a car to their friends or other activists. Its a car for people who like cars.

If they completely retooled the CVPI platform to make it 100 percent electric, used high torque motors to allow it to pick up speed quickly, and stuck enough batteries in the thing to give it some range, I think departments would buy it. Maybe like CNG cars at first. But once they realized that the thing could get up and go, and not stink like Texas City while driven, then it'd be more than the one CNG demo model that you give the Crime Prevention Officer who nobody likes.

[Curtis Baillie]

Not everyone can afford to fleet out a Tesla Roadster.

They had me just before the $8,000 transportation fee. Think I could write this off as a business expense?

[NRM_Oz]

As fuel costs bounce from $4.20 - $4.90 US / gal. here during the week, every cost saved on operational costs has to be significant. Due to an accident I went from a V6 to a 4 cylinder (needed to get A CAR and hiring would have cost me a kidney). I noticed the 50% reduction in fuel costs which were $50.00 US in my back pocket every week and it did not have as much guts but it was a car and it did the job of moving me to the train station and being out on weekends.

Most patrol companies run Geo Metro size cars to save on fuel and I know 1 patrol car I had onsite would do 800 miles a week easily so to run a Hummer would not be too smart - fuel wise. Yes those tiny cars have enough room for 2 people, are low to the grounds, have minimal protection around them for collisions ......... BUT ......... probably use 40% of the fuel of a cruiser, can park anywhere, usually easier for new drivers to use, come with A/C's etc and look very modern and with new vehicle costs of say $10k US compared to $25k US .................. would you want 2 cars and some change or the price of one ?

Our police HAD BMW 1300's motorbikes I think (sorry not into motorbikes) that were custom fitted and cost the same price as a cruiser - so were mainly scrapped since they could be used by 1 rider only per day - except ceremonial and high-way patrol bikes that are still in full use.

[SecTrainer]

Different strokes for different folks, as they say. My point in bringing these to everyone's attention was not necessarily to "sell" anyone on any particular design because no design of any kind would ever fit everyone's needs. I was simply showing examples of the types of vehicles that are on the horizon.

What many don't understand is that gasoline costs will definitely become THE number one issue for all fleet purchases, public or private, in the very near future.

Other considerations won't simply disappear, of course, but will only come into the equation after taking the first cut, which will be: "List all of the vehicles available to us that we can afford to operate". It doesn't matter too much what vehicle you're running, how much "git" it's got, how much gear it carries, or anything else if you can't afford to put it on the road. The world is approaching this tipping point with respect to the affordability and availability of petroleum-based transportation very quickly, and it will happen long before the world actually physically pulls the last drop of oil out of the ground.

The use of petroleum is accelerating, due to the explosive growth of demand from China and India. It is becoming obvious that the world's supply of oil will not meet our needs for as long as previously expected, and something is going to start to happen well before "the end" actually comes although I have not seen it mentioned anywhere in articles I have read about this.

What is going to happen is pretty easy to predict, it seems to me: Before the world runs out of oil, HOARDING ON A VERY LARGE SCALE by large corporations and governments, as well as on a smaller scale by private individuals, WILL BEGIN. Obviously, by sheer logic this hoarding MUST happen before the oil runs out, and will make the problem much worse but there won't be much anyone can do about it. Think about all of the entities that would have serious reasons to hoard petroleum products, if not the raw oil.

I am not sure that systematic hoarding has not already begun, and I'm not talking about our own Strategic Oil Reserves. The oil-producing states have something called a "floating reserve" already in place, for instance. On the private level, what started me thinking about all of this is that I happen to have a farmer acquaintance who is having four large underground tanks installed on his farm. When I asked him what they were for the other day, he just smiled and changed the subject in a rather pointed way. I don't know him well enough to press the issue and that was as far as I got with my question, but I think I have a pretty good idea what they might be for. And, if I'm right, who could blame him?

[SecTrainer]

As fuel costs bounce from $4.20 - $4.90 US / gal. here during the week, every cost saved on operational costs has to be significant. Due to an accident I went from a V6 to a 4 cylinder (needed to get A CAR and hiring would have cost me a kidney). I noticed the 50% reduction in fuel costs which were $50.00 US in my back pocket every week and it did not have as much guts but it was a car and it did the job of moving me to the train station and being out on weekends.

Most patrol companies run Geo Metro size cars to save on fuel and I know 1 patrol car I had onsite would do 800 miles a week easily so to run a Hummer would not be too smart - fuel wise. Yes those tiny cars have enough room for 2 people, are low to the grounds, have minimal protection around them for collisions ......... BUT ......... probably use 40% of the fuel of a cruiser, can park anywhere, usually easier for new drivers to use, come with A/C's etc and look very modern and with new vehicle costs of say $10k US compared to $25k US .................. would you want 2 cars and some change or the price of one ?

Our police HAD BMW 1300's motorbikes I think (sorry not into motorbikes) that were custom fitted and cost the same price as a cruiser - so were mainly scrapped since they could be used by 1 rider only per day - except ceremonial and high-way patrol bikes that are still in full use.

Many of the "downsides" of smaller gas vehicles, hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, etc. are being addressed in many, many corporate and experimental design studios at this moment. Perhaps only one out of every thousand of these design ideas will make it into production.

Society will move, in a stepwise fashion, into an era that is dominated by "personal transportation" vehicles, which will be small, sleek one- and two-seaters. These will have better and better performance as we get better at designing these vehicles and as money flows increasingly into the companies that make these vehicles, funding further innovation.

One very interesting line of development, as exemplified by the FighterCar, is the merging of the automobile and the motorcycle. Get these two groups of engineers working together, and some very fascinating possibilities are beginning to show up.

[NRM_Oz]

I should also mention that our buses, taxis and many courier vans run on LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) like in your homes which is about 40% the cost of fuel here, gives 20% less performance but also is about $2k US to have a tank and conversion done with a 35% rebate for clean air policies. Some family cars come with LPG fitted and to be honest these should be cheaper to encourage fleet and heavy users to think green.

[integrator97]

Well, I see a lot of pluses and minuses, fore & against.

It seems like it would be sportier than some of those golf carts and other goofy looking things out there. And some of them have some real speed.

Of course it is small and low to the ground. How fast could you exit one of these. Are they made of lexan and bullet resistant

Anyway, what everyone really needs is this universal transport.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/products_surge.cfm

Check it out. Green, and affordable, too.