Testing Shows Ford Has The Fastest Police Vehicle In The Country

Each year, the Michigan State Police tests new police vehicles to determine which manufacturer offers the best cars and SUVs for the job. Testing is conducted at Grattan Raceway in southwestern Michigan, and for 2021, troopers tested four motorcycles and 11 different vehicles. All entries in the testing regime were subjected to acceleration, top speed, distance to top speed, braking, and lap contests to allow direct performance comparisons.

The goal of the testing is to help police departments around the country decide which vehicles best fit their needs. Testing found that the all-wheel-drive 2022 Ford Police Interceptor Utility is the quickest police vehicle available. The vehicle is a version of the Ford Explorer and uses a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 engine making 400 horsepower. The vehicle was found in testing to reach 60 mph in 5.5 seconds and hit 100 mph in 13.5 seconds.

Ford's vehicle had a top speed of 148 mph, the highest top speed of all vehicles tested. Interestingly, the rear-wheel-drive Dodge Charger Pursuit with a V8 making 380 horsepower was 0.7 seconds slower to 60 mph and 0.6 seconds slower to 100 mph than Ford's SUV. The Ford SUV also had a higher top speed compared to the 139 mph for the Charger Charger Pursuit.

Perhaps the most interesting vehicle tested was the Mustang Mach-E police prototype, which is essentially a Mach-E GT. The EV hit 60 mph in 4.0 seconds and 100 mph in 11.9 seconds. That makes it significantly faster than the Ford SUV, but the electric police car isn't available to purchase at this time. However, testing did uncover a problem that many would expect from electric vehicles used for pursuit. After 18 laps around the test track, the battery charge had dropped by 30 percent.