The Vauxhall Ampera range-extending electric car has won the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Intelligent Transport Systems competition and could go into Police service as early as 2015

As a range-extender the Ampera also has a 1.4-litre petrol engine on board, which fires up to provide more electricity once the mains-charged batteries go flat. This provides a theoretical total range of over 350 miles.

On-board technology includes an internal camera with facial recognition and the latest Police software used to predict potential crime hotspots, which uses algorithms fed with previous incidents and historic data. The car’s standard dashboard display screen has been modified to show information from the Police National Database, which can also be accessed from the passenger’s sun visor. Four external cameras are capable of recording evidence.

The Under Secretary of State for Crime and Security, James Brokenshire, was given an in-depth demonstration of the Ampera by Jim Hammond, Chief Superintendent, ACPO ITS.