Concept Cruiser Aims to Replace Traditional Brands

At large exhibitor shows like International Association of Chiefs of Police's this week in San Diego, to find the hot new idea just look where the crowd is gathered on the show floor.

One crowd centered on one of those new ideas, a police cruiser, not with a recognizable logo from Ford, Chrysler or GM, but rather a concept car from Carbon Motors Corp.

The car is described as an integrated homeland security platform. There is only one right now, and it is just getting out to the public and scrutiny from law enforcement from all angles.

Is it possible that a police cruiser, which Carbon Motors likes to say, "Designed by law enforcement, for law enforcement," can retire the Crown Vics and Chargers from the streets of the United States?

The idea for Carbon (one of the essential building blocks of nature we are told) comes from a police officer (retired) from Coppell, Texas, Stacy Dean Stephens, who admits himself that he was "anal" about his cruiser when he was policing.

The idea that there wasn't a vehicle that wasn't from beginning to end solely created for and about policing, purpose built they call it, bothered him. With that in mind, he sent an email to William Santana Li, a man with an automotive background and an interest in company startups, briefly presenting his "by cops for cops" concept.

Obviously not a man to disregard any possible profitable idea, Li emailed Stephens back and said he had 30 days to convince him to get serious. "I put together every piece of marketing data and detail I could get my hands on and sent it off," Stephens said.

In January, 2003 the idea took flight, or hit the road. Headquartered in Atlanta, they have been working with Georgia Tech and the Georgia State Incubator program. According to Trevor Rudderham, Chief Development Office, "what was happening didn't fill the law enforcement needs. It's Business 101; give the customer what he needs."

The company seems serious abut law enforcement input. By going to their web site you can join the Carbon Council and be one of those who answer CM surveys and present candid feedback to their design questions. Such things as coach, or suicide doors were one of the concepts that arose from this group.

Turbo diesel, 250K mile life, aluminum frame, radiation and biological threat detectors, built in license detectors, the list goes on and on to over 70 customizable options now. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Production will not begin until 2012 after the have decided where to build it. They hope at that point to sell l0, 000 cars and move up to 50,000 units in 5 years. The annual market seems to be 60-70,000 units.

Rudderham they know they have to be competitively priced and also says the have plans for servicing and decommissioning. Sixty-two percent of departments service their own cars he says. They will train and support them. And the smaller departments can use the larger ones like a service dealership.

Carbon Motors plans to help departments broker sales of used vehicles to other departments or take back the units for refurbishing/recycling.

Carbon Motors says, "You don't send a pickup truck to put out a fire. So why is a family sedan accepted to protect our lives and property?" Well while most law enforcement is not driving grandma's get-me-to-the-store vehicle, rethinking the cruiser might have some logic in it.