The Cookeville Police Department will purchase four new hybrid vehicles for $36,000 each.
Chief Randy Evans said it was a first for the department.
The department will also purchase three standard SUVs at $33,000 each. Evans said they’ve been looking at studies, and motivations for the purchase came from nature of the car industry moving in this direction, and that the State Department of Safety also recently went in on hybrid vehicles.
Evans said they’ll be interested to see if hybrid vehicles offer any cost-savings.
Because the vehicles are hybrid they don’t require charging, but Evans said that the newly-constructed police station will have charging stations.
“We have planned for that in the future,” Evans said. “So we have the ability, a section of a parking lot, if at some point, and that could be whenever, five to 10 years in the future, if we have that need we have the ability to retrofit an area.”
Evans said the purchases are budgeted, and they’ll enter into a statewide contract.
