GM Volt fights crime

Vauxhall used the UK Police & Security Conference in January to showcase its Volt plug-in hybried electric vehicle (PHEV) in full police livery, in a pitch to see it introduced into active service by 2015.

Vauxhall loaded up the Ampera, as it's known in Europe, with a raft of fully functional, state-of-the-art law enforcement technologies, including:

- Four external cameras for evidence gathering;

- An internal facial recognition camera with links to the police national database;

- Upgrades extending the standard car's display screen to link with police systems, including automatic number plate recognition, with a duplicate screen mounted on the passenger sun visor; and

- A new predictive system running sat-nav and historic data through specialist algorithms to alert police of potential crime hotspots.

It was sufficient to win a competition run by the Association of Chief Police Officers Intelligent Transport Systems (ACPO ITS) and earn an in-depth demo session with Under Secretary of State for Crime and Security, James Brokenshire, delivered by ACPO ITS chiefs.

Helping the Ampera's cause is the attention it's gaining elsewhere. The car is already shortlisted for World Car of the Year and European Car of the Year.

With the Volt set for release locally in the second half of this year, Holden spokeswoman Kate Lonsdale told motoring.com.au it's too early to talk about similar plans the company may have for the car Down Under. "Obviously we expect a fair bit of interest from public sector organisations, given their incentives and the early-adopter role they play in fuelling public interest in new technologies like the Volt. But no, nothing's been firmed up enough to say yet."

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