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Matthew Hansen/Stuff
The colourful, multicultural Ioniq is set to attend community events across Auckland.
The NZ Police have unveiled a new ethnic services team community car, a fully electric Hyundai Ioniq 5, wrapped in greetings from 75 different languages.
It’s the fourth community car to join the Police fleet, following on from the previously revealed Pirihimana (Māori), Va’a (Pasifika) and Rainbow (Pride) cars. Although, it is the first community car to feature a plug.
Greetings in Afrikaans, Vietnamese, Bengali, Danish, Greek, Hindi, Niuean, Italian, Tongan, Tagalog, and Zulu are all present on the new community car, with English and Te Reo also represented. It also features a QR code, linking people to Police recruitment information.
Matthew Hansen/Stuff
The 58kWh Hyundai Ioniq 5 is rated to travel up to 480km to a charge.
Unveiled at Counties Manukau by Commissioner of Police Andrew Coster and the Police Ethnic Services team, the colourful EV will be used primarily for community engagement and police recruitment.
The car is part of the Waitemata District fleet, and will be primarily used in Auckland.
“At present, 9.3% of our staff are from ethnic communities. We value the strength and unique skills that they bring to our organisation through their lived experiences and language abilities,” said Commissioner Coster.
Matthew Hansen/Stuff
The ethnic communities’ car was designed by Shine, which also designed the Pirihimana, Va’a and Rainbow community vehicles.
“The visibility of this community car is significant. It’s a way for us to reach out and build trust and confidence with our ethnic communities. We want our young people to be able to see their identities reflected back at them,” he added.
“We want them to feel safe when they approach officers and get excited when they see a colourful car like this. Perhaps even consider joining the police.”
According to Coster, the new electric car forms part of a new Police ethnic strategy, with more information set to be confirmed later in the year.
This is Hyundai’s newest all-electric SUV – the Ioniq 5.
The news comes three months after the Police announced it would be introducing the first fully electric cars to its fleet, in the form of five BMW i4s. The cars were added to the fleet as part of a $1.7m operational trial evaluating the viability of electric vehicles in real-world usage.
The transformed Ioniq 5 is one of 34 fully electric Hyundais that were added to the Police fleet in December of last year for ‘non-operational work’ at 15 centres around the country.
Priced at $79,990, the entry-level Hyundai Ioniq 5 features a 58kWh battery and a 160kW/350Nm electric motor. Its range is rated at 480km to a charge on the WLTP cycle.
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