Vauxhall special vehicles goes Nordic

Vauxhall Special Vehicles accompanied the Association of Chief Police Officers Intelligent Transport Systems (ACPO ITS) to the Norwegian Police Conference in Oslo in January to demonstrate the Single Vehicle Architecture fitted to its Astra and Insignia models.

The demonstration to Police forces in Norway follows successful previous presentations to the French Police at the British Embassy, as well as at Milipol in Paris in 2011.

The Norwegian Police Conference was attended by 250 Government, Police and Procurement staff and the British Ambassador to Norway Jane Owen was also in attendance and met with Vauxhall Special Vehicles to discuss how British technology is supporting Police in crime-fighting.

The Norwegian Police were impressed with the Single Vehicle Architecture technology and its application in the Astra and Insignia models that Vauxhall Special Vehicles has been invited to display the cars to an audience of fleet managers in March 2012. The Danish Police also received a demonstration of the Police vehicles.

Dick Ellam, Vauxhall Special Vehicles manager, said: "We are very pleased with the interest we have had in our vehicles from the Police in Norway, as well as in France and Denmark. We are now in the process of developing left-hand drive demonstration models, which will be fully compliant to ACPO ITS Single Vehicle Architecture, to loan to the Norwegian and French Police forces."

Vauxhall is a member of the One Box Consortium working with ACPO ITS, which provides a standardised specification to which all manufacturers and suppliers can adhere, allowing them to produce common wiring for equipment and connection points. This allows plug and play of electronics, importantly reducing the time needed for equipping and decommissioning vehicles.