“That little Mustang out there is an animal,” said Thomaston Police Chief Tim Hoppe.

A year old, and ripened with 14,000 miles of maturity as of Jan. 30, Thomaston PD’s little electric car is great in the snow, according to Hoppe. Based on weight ration, it’s relatively heavy for the battery centers, and it’s an all-wheel drive vehicle.

“I’m not saying it will climb a mountain,” he said, “but I would definitely put it up against some things that would normally get stuck.”

Hinging on the Town of Thomaston’s commitment to greenness, the police department is slowly converting its small-town fleet to electric, starting with the little compact that’s sometimes seen re-juicing at an electrical outlet outside the station.

Thomaston PD previously used Dodge Chargers, which are coming to the end of the line at the end of 2023. Twenty-five or 30 years ago, Crown Vics carried the town name.

“So, the mass production – everything fit to the next generation,” said Hoppe. “Well, the Mustang — I’m not an engineer for Ford — but I would imagine that at some point that design’s going to change.”

Therefore, the current Thomaston Mustang will be the one and only for the fleet of electric vehicles. Each cruiser is replaced every 10 years. Going forward, the headlights of conversion are aimed toward Ford Lightning pickup trucks, following the belief that, like all pickups, parts will be transferable, thus potentially saving the town in maintenance expenses.

That said, the Mustang is already saving taxpayers money. Lots of money, according to Hoppe.

Gas is not needed. Oil changes are nonexistent. Thomaston has solar panels, and, “if I understand it correctly – we’re not even paying an electric bill anymore,” said Hoppe. (Editor’s note: Thomaston has 30 Central Maine Power accounts that are tied to municipal buildings, pump stations and streetlights, etc.; 29 of them had no charge since the town’s new solar array was fully functioning last July. The town does pay for the meter that monitors the amount of energy that goes from the solar array to the grid. The town also budgets to cover about 10% of the annual electric cost just in case something goes wrong or there are a lot of cloudy days.)

And the car is quiet, which can come in handy, according to Hoppe. Though, sometimes it can be a little too quiet. The radio can be heard easily through the doors.

“As a matter of fact, it’s so quiet, if you’re talking on your Bluetooth going down the road, people can actually hear speaking through the doors,” said Hoppe.

The tallest Thomaston police officer, standing upright at 6 feet, four inches, fits comfortably inside the little car with room to spare. And, officers delight at the heated leather seats that were included with the basic package, allowing the department to spend its money instead on new LED lights.

Thomaston is roughly 11 square miles in size. Hoppe estimates that on average, each shift, officers drive 90-100 miles. More miles are clocked during the night than during the day.

The downfall for Thomaston PD, during the winter, comes with not having a garage. The Mustang is kept charged, yet mileage is lost on the charge.

“You have to constantly reset the charge service,” said Hoppe. “Not the end of the world, but you probably lose – in reality, sitting outside in the cold while it’s being charged – you lose 25-30 miles of distance.”

But, when back on the road, the car regenerates when the foot lets off the pedal anywhere and hits the brake; it does a reboot, and warms up the batteries.

“And then you come back in, you plug it in, and you’re basically back to it,” he said.