![](https://emergencyservicestimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ESS-Button-resized.png")
As delegates for the 50th National Association of Police Fleet Managers‘ (NAPFM) conference strolled across the car park to the Telford International Centre in early July, many will have been misty-eyed, reeling in the years as they stopped to travel down memory lane thanks to an inspirational idea to display police cars and bikes from the last five decades as a suitable introduction to this landmark event.
Meanwhile inside the centre, the Met Police had also risen to the challenge with several cars from its museum on show while a comprehensive photographic record of many past events courtesy of the NAPFM event team from former Wiltshire Police managed events proved a fascinating talking point for many show veterans.
Those static displays made their mark, not just for delegates’ reminiscences but a reminder too of the massive changes in roads policing since 1973. That was the year when the show – originally an annual police fleet engineers seminar hosted by Wiltshire Police as its Devizes HQ – was simply a meeting of police fleet managers and suppliers, following an informal suggestion at the 1972 London’s Earls Court motor show.
The event, which I once dubbed as ‘the biggest motor show you’ve never heard of’ is continuing into its 51st year still in very good hands and robust health.
While its mission statement remains the same, the rationale of the show – now in its fifth venue and what must now be its permanent home in Telford – is unique in that it offers an informal opportunity to ‘talk shop’ in a non-commercial environment with no ‘hard sell’.
There is more to the event than the exhibition, which this year attracted over 80 exhibitors from all over the UK, there’s also a two-day conference with a packed agenda which ended with an awards dinner. Delegates come from every UK police force and non-Home Office forces including British Transport Police, the Ministry of Defence, the UK Border Agency and HM Prison service.
Founded in 1986, the NAPFM mission statement is to ‘provide and deliver safe, effective, and efficient fleet and related services to UK police forces’ with the accompanying exhibition maintaining its stature with police fleet managers and exhibitors. This year, the two main items on the agenda were the impact of future fleet technologies and driver safety systems along with a panel discussion featuring guest speakers.
One of the biggest surprises of the last 15 years or so is how the number of manufacturers who used to exhibit regularly has shrunk dramatically; the latest high-profile withdrawal from the UK police fleet market was BMW cars last year joining the likes of Lexus, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Honda, FIAT, Subaru, Mercedes Benz, Jaguar Land Rover and IVECO no longer participating. MG Rover, LDV, Proton and Saab have all sadly gone under and the new Chinese owned MG Motor has chosen so far not to re-enter the market, along with SAIC who import the Maxus range into the UK via Dublin.
It leaves Stellantis, Ford, VAG Group, Volvo and Toyota as the main players with all well represented at Telford. Skoda in particular is flying the flag for VAG with its Enyaq EV a fleet favourite with many converters and well regarded in paramedic fleets especially. Volvo showed the EX 30 EV and it was fascinating to see Toyota’s hydrogen powered Mirai on the Met Police display, next to a Dutch registered Tesla surveillance car.
But that’s not to say others are not seeing the opportunities police fleets have to offer with perhaps one of the biggest surprises this year the debut of Chinese manufacturer BYD (Build Your Dreams) which had a large stand with a number of its latest models on display. It was also good to see Ineos represented on at least two stands with one of their Grenadier models now on active service with Police Scotland. Suzuki is having a good year in 999 fleets, on two wheels as well as four.
In the motorbike market, once dominated by Honda and BMW, finds BMW is still very much present along with Japanese manufacturers Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki, which displayed the world’s first hybrid motorbike.
The 2025 NAPFM event takes place on 8 and 9 July at the International Centre, Telford.
To read similar articles, check out our Products channel.
