Five fully outfitted Ford Mustang Mach-E patrol vehicles are entering active service with the Virgin Islands Police Department. The Virgin Islands Energy Office says two will be assigned to St. Croix, two to St. Thomas and one to St. John.
The Energy Office secured federal funding through the U.S. Department of the Interior's Energizing Insular Communities Program. Metro Motors coordinated local purchasing and specialized upfitting, while Dana Safety Supply installed the public-safety equipment.
The deployment is the government's first use of fully outfitted, all-electric law-enforcement vehicles. The Energy Office says federal funding has supported more than 60 electric vehicles across the government fleet, including passenger vehicles, pickups and transit vehicles.
Officers and mechanics received a familiarization workshop before the patrol units entered service. The agency did not publish the five vehicles' total purchase and upfitting cost, duty-cycle range, charging locations or operating-savings projections in its announcement.
VIPD and the Energy Office should publish a one-year pilot scorecard covering availability, charging uptime, energy cost per mile, maintenance, range under patrol conditions and contingency plans for extended outages and hurricanes before expanding the fleet.
Source published September 1, 2026. Read the original reporting or release for the complete record.
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