In each of the last ten months, Ford’s Explorer-based Police Interceptor Utility has outsold the Taurus Police Interceptor by at least two to one.
Beginning in July 2014 (a month in which Taurus Police Interceptor sales increased 15% and Explorer Police Interceptor sales jumped 64%) and continuing through April 2015 (when Explorer PI sales rose to their third-highest monthly level in the model’s history and Taurus PI sales slid 2%), the Police Interceptor Utility’s ten-month long U.S. sales tally rang in at 19,362 units. Ford sold 8,185 Taurus Police Interceptors during the same period.
Thus, 2.4 times more Explorer Police Interceptor Utilities are being sold than Taurus Police Interceptors. That trend falls in line with the civilian market, only to a severely lesser degree. Conventional Explorers are selling six times more often than conventional Taurus sedans through the first four months of 2015. Non-police Taurus sales are down 36%, year-over-year, a loss of 6,422 units. Non-police Explorers are up 18% to 69,372 units, a gain of 10,375 sales, year-over-year.
Even by the standards of vehicles which sell to the general public, the Explorer Police Interceptor Utility isn’t uncommon. Year-to-date, more copies of the lights-and-siren Explorers were sold in the United States than there were sales of the Volkswagen Beetle, the Cadillac ATS, Volvo XC60, Mercedes-Benz GLA, Lexus GS, Lincoln MKC, Ram ProMaster, or any of Land Rover’s SUVs.
The Taurus Police Interceptor, on the other hand, with only 3,373 sales so far this year, is outsold by the Lincoln Navigator, Nissan Titan, Scion FR-S, BMW 7-Series, and Porsche 911.
Of course, none of these vehicles are rivals with which sales comparisons possess any great relevance. (Although, a track test between an EcoBoost Taurus PI and an FR-S would be interesting.) But the vehicles mentioned help to clarify the frequency with which Ford is selling their two main police vehicles.
Unfortunately, sales figures for police versions of the Dodge Charger and Chevrolet Tahoe, for instance, aren’t broken out. From a historical perspective, we also lack the necessary breakdown of Crown Victoria sales, as well. Ford averaged 38,000 total Crown Vic sales in the model’s final three full years and sold another 4,429 copies in 2012. Ford is on pace for fewer than 45,000 total Taurus sales in 2015 and could top the 250K mark with the Explorer lineup.
In 2013, the Explorer Police Interceptor Utility outsold its Taurus equivalent by just 29%. In their abbreviated launch year of 2012, the Taurus PI was the more common vehicle. More recently, in calendar year 2014, the police Explorer outsold the Taurus almost exactly two to one.
And again we ask, whither the Carbon Motors E7?
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.
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