It takes at least 40 minutes to charge an ordinary EV to 80 percent, and only vehicles that support battery swap can meet the all-day patrol needs of police cars.
(Image credit: Nio)
Whether Nio, a local Chinese luxury car brand, can have its models used as police cars has sparked a lot of discussion among Chinese Internet users recently.
Nio delivered eight Nio ES6s as police cars to the Laoshan District of Qingdao City in eastern China's Shandong Province on November 18, after which a number of Internet users questioned whether these vehicles, which start at RMB 358,000 ($56,000), were used as police cars in violation of procurement procedures.
Hubei Daily's media outlet Jimu News explained this on Saturday, citing a source in charge of official vehicle management in Qingdao city government.
There are now more than 1,000 new energy vehicles (NEVs) among Qingdao's official vehicles. The city's newly purchased official vehicles in the past two years are all NEVs, except for emergency vehicles, fire trucks and classified vehicles, the source said.
The city's decision to purchase Nio vehicles was based on input from departments that have a need for the vehicles, the source said.
Many departments said ordinary electric vehicles take 40 minutes to charge to 80 percent in the fastest case, which is a limitation for departments that use vehicles frequently, including public security, the person said.
"We found after field research that vehicles supporting battery swap could solve this problem, so we chose Nio," the person said.
The eight police vehicles being put into use are mainly used for all-day patrols in Laoshan District, the person said, adding that the relevant procurement practices are in line with procedures and standards.
Notably, according to China's current regulations on the management of official vehicles for government agencies, the price of an official vehicle shall not exceed RMB 180,000 if a new energy car is used.
According to the regulation, the purchase price of emergency security vehicles should be within RMB 180,000, and the price of law enforcement duty vehicles should be within RMB 120,000.
If special circumstances do exist, these two types of use models can be equipped with small and medium-sized vehicles priced within RMB 250,000 yuan, or large vehicles priced within RMB 450,000 yuan.
In September this year, Nio won the vehicle procurement tender of Laoshan Branch of Qingdao Municipal Public Security Bureau for RMB 1,999,200.
An announcement showed that the local public security bureau purchased the Nio ES6 Sport model, with a quantity of 8 units and a unit price of RMB 249,900.
The information on Nio's official website shows that the starting price of ES6 Sport is RMB 358,000. If users choose Nio's battery rental service BaaS, the price of the vehicle can be reduced by RMB 128,000 to RMB 230,000.
This means that Nio vehicles are selected as police vehicles in compliance with the current Chinese government procurement regulations.
