Winning the contract to provision Police with their next frontline patrol car seems set to significantly improve Skoda’s market share here.

COPPING the contract to replace the police’s Holden Commodore patrol cars with its Superb station wagon will likely at least double Skoda’s market share, the make has acknowledged.

Neither Police nor Skoda NZ will say how cars are involved, but in a statement about the deal the Police identified that the NZ force presently has more than 2000 front-line cars nationally.

Skoda New Zealand boss Rodney Gillard says this is by far his operation’s biggest fleet opportunity, much larger than a bulk deal to provision cars to Corporate Cabs, which started four years ago, is ongoing and has so far provisioned several hundred cars.

Last year Skoda sold around 1500 cars in New Zealand, for a 1.6 percent passenger market share, and is looking at a 1200 unit tally this year, mainly to Covid-19’s impact on buying trends and product availability. He suggested this arrangement will put Skoda in front of a much bigger audience than it has at present and did not discount suggestion that the count might be high enough to double the annual registrations volume.

Police say the Superb wagon has been accepted in two 2.0-litre petrol versions, a 162kW front-drive and 206kW four-wheel-drive. The supply kicks in from April, 2021.

The cars are essentially standard production models, which will be converted into patrol guise on arrival in New Zealand, but equivalents that represent in the showroom are presently in slightly different tune; 140kW and 200kW.

The engines offered to Police have been in models presented here previously, and Skoda NZ has suggested they might yet return in other showroom-bound versions of the Superb. The closest equivalents on public sale at present appear to be the front-drive Super Style, which has the 140kW engine and costs $65,000, and the Superb Sportline 4x4, with the 200kW engine. It’s a $71,990 car.

The fleet changeover was forced by General Motors determining in February that Holden, which held the contract for almost 20 years with the Commodore, would cease making cars and retire as a brand.

That took the NZ Police by surprise. The hunt for a new preferred vehicle supplier was fast-tracked; they went to the new car industry with a request for proposals in July and the tender closed on August 21. Seven brands presented 27 vehicles for consideration; of these 12 were short-listed for the job, including at least one hybrid and several electrics.

While police have declined to cite the brands, other than the contract winner, the testing process at Taupo racing circuit last month allowed for easy identification of the battery-compelled Hyundai Kona and the Tesla Model 3 (above) plus the Toyota Camry hybrid. None passed muster.

Though important for selection, track and on-road testing was not the only qualifier for passing muster. Police say the cars with electric drive technologies were not only thwarted by power efficiency limitations but also when considered on grounds of total cost of ownership.

However, that experience was been positive, they say. In their statement, Police says they have gained valuable real experience with electric and hybrid vehicles and been provided with practical learnings for their future implementation. “While the technology does not currently align with Police’s core business requirements, EVs and hybrids will continue to be tested as the technology improves in terms of vehicle performance and range.”

Even after the Superbs start coming into the front line, some of the force’s VF and ZB Commodores will still serve, as police cars are considered for replacement at an average age of six to seven years or once the clock up 120,000km, whichever comes first.

Police said the Superbs stood out as the “ideal primary response vehicles” throughout the process; frontline staff said they handled well, and they felt confident and safe driving the vehicle.

The spaciousness of the rear passenger area also came in for praise; a reminder of how rear-seat capacity has been a sore point in respect to the ZB Commodore liftback. It was withdrawn from frontline duties in 2019 due to health and safety issues caused by a lack of headroom in the back. Those cars were replaced with ZB station wagons.

There had been speculation German manufacturer BMW would be a strong contender for the contract given it manufactures a range of purpose-built vehicles for law enforcement and are used by police in Australia. However, no BMWs were seen at the Taupo circuit test days.