California Highway Patrol Taps Dodge for Charger Pursuit Vehicle
Watch out California speed demons! Yesterday, the 20th of July, Dodge and the California Highway Patrol announced that the CHP has tapped Dodge as the exclusive provider to replace the department’s aging fleet of pursuit vehicles. The state has placed an order with Dodge for more than 580 Dodge Charger Pursuit police sedans. Delivery will be made over a two year period. Both parties have said that most of the deliveries will take place next year.
Dodge Wins in a Stringent Bidding Process
The biding process, overseen by the California Department of General Services for the CHP, which is the nation’s largest state police agency, was aimed to procure a vehicle based on three main requirements: performance, price, and payload capacity. The Charger Police Pursuit sedan met or exceeded all the requirements in these three areas. Over the next two years, the department plans to replace all existing high-mileage vehicles on patrol with those from this order.
Jeff Kromer, vice president-U.S. Sales Operations, Fleet and Small Business Sales, FCA US LLC said “Our Charger Pursuit police sedans meet CHP’s stringent payloads requirements, and in particular, will accommodate the agency’s radio systems. The Charger Pursuit also meets CHP’s demand for ongoing fuel-efficiency and its desire to be a leader in fiscal responsibility in California.”
Part of the CHP order will include some Charger Pursuit sedans that will be equipped with the segment’s largest Uconnect 12.1-inch built-in touchscreen. This device enables a segment-exclusive integration of law enforcement computer systems with the easy-to-use and award-winning Uconnect touchscreen system.
About the Dodge Charger Pursuit Police Sedan
Dodge/Chrysler’s 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 engine powers the majority of the vehicles in the CHP’s Charger Pursuit sedan order. The Pentasar V6 engine develops 292 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. When installed in the Charger Pursuit sedan, it will deliver 26 miles per gallon estimated on the highway.
This order will also contain a small number of Charger Pursuit sedans with the more potent 5.7-liter HEMI® V8 engine. These vehicles, which are equipped with Fuel Saver Technology, will be used at the department’s Emergency Vehicle Operations Course in Sacramento. The 5.7-liter Hemi® delivers a best in class 370 horsepower which also gives it a best in class acceleration.
Bick Pratt, head of FCA US Government Sales and Operations said “The CHP is ordering our Charger Pursuit vehicle to reintroduce the sedan into their patrol vehicle fleet. That’s important to us because it reflects a shift back to sedans by a progressive agency like the CHP. It is also important because other agencies throughout California rely on the CHP’s vast resources and knowledge to test, evaluate, and determine what police vehicle meets the needs of the CHP, and in many cases their local needs as well. Local agencies have the ability to also purchase from this same CHP contract, a process commonly known as “piggy-backing.”””
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