The numbers coming out of Green Bay, Wisconsin are the kind that make fleet managers sit up straight. The Green Bay Police Department has been running two Tesla Model Y patrol vehicles since 2024, and after nearly two full years of real-world use, those cars have each cost less than $500 annually to keep on the road. Not $500 a month. Not $500 per fill-up. Five hundred dollars total, per vehicle, per year, with windshield wipers being the most significant maintenance event either car has logged.
That figure was compelling enough that Green Bay’s Common Council voted earlier this week to approve the purchase of two additional 2026 Tesla Model Y units, bringing the department’s electric fleet to four. The two new additions will come in at just under $90,000 combined, which, once you factor in the cost of outfitting a standard patrol SUV with all the required gear, actually comes in below what the department would spend on comparable gas-powered vehicles. That is not a talking point lifted from a press release. That is the chief of police saying it in a ride-along interview.
The original two Model Ys were assigned to the traffic safety unit, where they spent their days operated by a single officer per shift. That relatively controlled usage pattern made them a sensible test case. The two incoming vehicles will serve as fully marked patrol cars, meaning they will face a more demanding duty cycle, with multiple operators, more stop-and-go urban driving, and the occasional need to move fast. The department is treating the expansion less as a full commitment and more as a deliberate next stage of evaluation…