Readers React: The LAPD’s tone-deaf decision to lease electric cars from German BMW

To the editor: This article reports that German carmaker BMW beat California’s own Tesla for the Los Angeles Police Department’s 100-electric vehicle lease. (“BMW wins LAPD electric car contract, beating Tesla,” June 8)

At a time when we’re trying to bring back manufacturing to America, doesn’t the city think it would have been a better decision for public officials to be driving cars made by a U.S. company? Even if BMW’s bid was lower, I think we should have weighed the benefits that would have come from building our own products and our own government vehicles.

Steve Binder, Oxnard

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To the editor: Thanks to The Times for keeping us up with improvements in LAPD cars. Unfortunately, it is not clear if it is a good idea. Leasing and driving 100 electric cars will reduce fossil carbon pollution, but is the cost worth the saving?

If California adopted a carbon dividend program that applied a fee for fossil carbon and returned the proceeds to the people, the cost of the carbon pollution would be more obvious —and choices such as this car lease would be clear.

James A. Martin, Huntington Beach

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