Due to persistent issues with recently purchased hybrid vehicles, the Town of Ulster Police Department is likely to look to sell the cars and replace them much sooner than usual.
During a March 2 meeting of the Town Board, Police Chief Kyle Berardi detailed some of the issues his department has been having with the Ford Police Interceptor Utility Hybrids, two purchased from Romeo Ford in 2020 and two the following year. The cost of each vehicle ranged between $36,000-$39,000.
“Late last year, in late August and then into December, the 2020’s…experienced transmission failures,” Berardi said, noting that they both came off the same assembly line, and that both transmissions had to be replaced. “Ford technicians stated it was a hybrid unit that went bad on them and they’ve been seeing that in the hybrid patrol vehicles.”
Berardi added that the vehicles purchased in 2021 have not experienced similar issues, but both are still around 20,000 shy of the 50,000 mile range where the 2020 vehicles suffered transmission failures.
Near the end of 2022, one of the vehicles purchased in 2020 sustained damage to the drive shaft due to a faulty bolt in its differential, causing the unit to be out of service for 54 days while awaiting repairs. That issue occurred while the officer was on a call, with officials determining that around two minutes were added to the response time after another vehicle was sent out.
The other three units were returned to Romeo Ford at that time to have their differential bolts replaced.
In a letter to Town Supervisor James E. Quigley, III, Berardi said that despite being covered by warranty, there were residual costs to the town as a result of the vehicle issues.
“As all these repairs were covered under warranty, with minimal out of pocket expense,” he wrote.“The loss occurred because of not being able to utilize these units during an extended period.”
Berardi went on to explain that patrol units are assigned to evenly distribute each vehicles mileage to prevent excessive wear. Due to the issues with the hybrid vehicles, this practice was upended.
“With both 2020s being out of service for an extended period of time, other patrol units in our fleet were forced to be utilized with approximately 7,000 to 8,000 miles being redirected to those units that was not planned,” said Berardi.
The four hybrid vehicles represent one-third of the town’s police fleet, which officials had hoped would be able to eventually shift to all-hybrid.
“The Town of Ulster made a decision in 2019 to try to adjust its carbon footprint as it relates to our largest user of petroleum products in the general fund, that is the police patrol fleet,” said Quigley during the March 2 meeting. “I think we’re at a point where our intentions were good, but we are now jeopardizing public safety in the community.”
In his letter to Quigley, Berardi suggested that the town consider replacing the vehicles sooner than usual.
“It is my opinion, due to the increased break downs (sic) we are experiencing with the Ford Police Interceptor Utility Hybrids, we should look at replacing these units earlier then there (sic) contractual service life of 100,000 miles in order to maximize their resale value and mitigate large repair costs in the future,” Berardi said.
The Town Board voted unanimously to authorize Berardi to develop a replacement plan for all four vehicles over the next eight months. Berardi noted that a Dodge Durango purchased in 2021 has 20,000 miles on it and thus far has had no issues.
“It’s a stepped process,” Quigley said.
Berardi said police vehicles had an extended five-year warranty, with the hybrid batteries having an eight-year warranty. But there was significant concern about what other issues might be on the horizon, even within the warranty range.
“The long term issue is what repairs will need to be made to these vehicles going into the 70-80,000 mile range,” Berardi said. He added that he expected the town should be able to get “a pretty decent amount of money” for the cars at open auction.
Councilman Rocco Secreto noted that police vehicle equipment doesn’t transfer from one car to another.
“So wherever the car goes, the equipment goes with it,” Secreto said.“We sell it as-is.
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