FREMONT, CALIFORNIA — A Tesla electric police car involved in a high-speed chase was forced to say uncle halfway through because it ran out of juice.<br />According to Mercury News, Officer Jesse Hartman was out last Friday on patrol in his Fremont Police Department Tesla Model S when he became involved in a hot pursuit. <br />Mercury News reported the chase began in Fremont and even reached top speeds of around 120 mph on the freeway. <br />Officer Hartman's Tesla was humming along fine and leading the chase, when he started to notice the car was low on batteries.<br />According to Fremont Police dispatch audio obtained through Broadcastify, Hartman can be heard saying, "just realized I am down to six miles of battery on the Tesla, so I may lose it here in a sec."<br />He continues, "if someone else is able, can they maneuver into the number one spot?" <br />According to CNN, other units following the Tesla then took over the pursuit with help from the California State Highway Patrol. <br /><br />Unfortunately, the chase had to be called off after 10 minutes because the suspect started to drive too dangerously. <br />CNN reported that California State Highway Patrol later found the suspect's car abandoned in San Jose. <br />According to a Fremont police department spokeswoman, apparently the Tesla had not been recharged after an earlier shift before Hartman took it out last Friday. <br />The Fremont police are currently involved in a 6 month pilot program with Tesla to determine whether electric vehicles can be rolled out on a larger scale for police use.
