AUTOS AND VEHICLES

Just imagine proudly patrolling a neighborhood in this vehicle knowing that you are driving a state-of-the-art world-class machine – the machine you deserve – ready to perform at a moment’s notice and keep you safe while you do your job (and keep the chief and the administration folks happy at the same time with lower fuel bills, better maintenance performance, and Carbon Motors there to back it up 24-7). From the inside out and top to bottom, this vehicle is designed to be the perfect blend of form and function for law enforcement.

As has been suspected for a long while, BMW and the new Carbon Motors announced an agreement today that will supply Carbon’s upcoming police cruiser with BMW’s fantastic 3.0-liter inline-six turbo-diesel engine. What was somewhat of a surprise was the agreed-upon volume: 240,000 engines—ready to install, complete with six-speed automatic transmissions. Considering that the police market accounts for about 60,000 vehicles annually and that Carbon is an unknown, that supply ought to last the company some time.

Carbon Motors was formed in 2003 with the intent to provide a purpose-built police cruiser to compete with other cop cars built from existing civilian vehicles and saddled with the accompanying compromises. Last year, the company took up residence in a vacated Visteon factory in Connersville, Indiana, and announced plans to spend $350 million updating the 1.8-million square-foot space for its purposes. Carbon’s car is known as the E7 for now, although the company calls that an internal code name and will reveal a more intimidating moniker closer to production, which it says will begin in 2012.