A Tesla Model Y police car sounds like a meme until you see one in person. Unplugged Performance had one parked inside the Tesla Montebello grand opening, and I caught up with Danny to walk through the patrol build their Upfit law-enforcement division has been quietly shipping to agencies around the country.
Pursuit-rated brakes are the headline
A stock Model Y wasn’t engineered for hot laps with the siren on. The Upfit conversion swaps in pursuit brakes: upgraded calipers, rotors, pads, stainless steel lines, and high-temperature brake fluid. Danny said they’ve put these through Tesla Corsa events and other track sessions to make sure the package holds up to actual patrol conditions, which is some of the hardest abuse a vehicle sees on the road.
Lights, push bar, and a smarter A-pillar setup
Up front there’s a push bar and the full lights-and-sirens integration you’d expect on any patrol vehicle. The detail I liked: instead of drilling through the A-pillar to mount a spotlight, which Danny pointed out compromises pillar integrity, they use remote-controlled spotlights driven by a joystick in the center console. Safer for the officer, and the A-pillar stays intact.
Officer-friendly interior
The center console is lowered so the officer has clearance for their service weapon on their hip. Everything (lights, spotlights, siren controls) is integrated through that center stack. In the back, there’s a custom single-prisoner partition. Danny noted it’s the right call because you rarely transport more than one person at a time, and confining them to one side stops them from rolling around or kicking at the cabin.
Cybertruck patrol units are next
The Model Y isn’t the only one in the Upfit lineup. Danny said they’re currently building several hundred vehicles for departments around the country, including Cybertruck patrol units that’ll start showing up on the road this year. If you’ve been to one of Tesla’s recent grand openings, you’ve already seen the kind of integration work Unplugged is doing on the truck side.
Worth pointing out: Upfit is the law-enforcement division within Unplugged Performance. Same parent company, separate focus. If you want to see more builds, search “Upfit” on YouTube and you’ll find their deployment videos for specific agencies.
If you’re planning to grab a civilian-spec Model Y of your own, use my Tesla referral link for the current Supercharging or FSD perks. Let me know what you think of the patrol build in the comments.
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