The Palo Alto Police Department deployed its first and only Rivian R1S SUV into service starting in July.

The Rivian is currently in the department’s testing phase, a time for the officers to assess whether or not the vehicle meets their needs, which lasts anywhere from six months to a year. As a standard rule, according to Lieutenant Nicolas Martinez in an email, patrol cars in the fleet are replaced once they reach 5 years or 100,000 miles — whichever comes first.

After an internal review, the Fleet, Purchasing and City Manager’s Office approved adding Rivians — assembled in Illinois — to the fleet, paving the way for their official rollout. Matinez said that the Rivian SUV offers high performance, precise handling, a large interior size and payload capacity similar to the department’s current gas-powered Ford Explorers and Dodge Durangos, which is why it was chosen over other electric vehicles.

While the department has yet to obtain enough data to conclude the benefits or harms of Rivian implementation, the total cost of ownership of an EV is often less than that of a standard gas vehicle. Martinez said the transition to these new vehicles has been smooth, and officers have found comfort in the large interior space of the Rivian.

As of now, a discernible barrier to implementing more EVs in the fleet is Palo Alto’s EV charging infrastructure, which takes six to eight hours to fully charge one vehicle.

“As we move forward, I would expect that we implement more EV patrol vehicles into the fleet,” Martinez said. “We will not be able to go fully electric because of the nature of our business and needing the ability to work in areas at times when there is no power. With that being the case, we are always looking for new ways to integrate EVs into police work.”