The Chevrolt Volt will soon be on parking ticket duty in the Big Apple.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The New York City Police Department has a new cruiser that will be silently plying the city streets very soon.

Among 70 new electrically-driven vehicles purchased by the City of New York will be 50 Chevrolet Volts that will be used for, among other things, police work.







The Volts won't be chasing down bank robbers -- at least not yet. They'll be used by traffic enforcement agents who cruise the city's streets writing parking tickets.

The Volt will be the first electric car used by the New York City Police Department, although the department already uses a number of hybrid cars and electric scooters.

General Motors (GM, Fortune 500), which makes the Chevrolet Volt, calls it an "extended-range electric vehicle." It can travel up to 35 miles on a fully charged battery, according to EPA estimates. After that, a gasoline engine generates power for continued driving.

The city also purchased 10 Ford Transit Connect Electric vans and 10 Navistar E-star electric utility trucks.

Among the agencies using the vehicles will be the city's Departments of Correction, Environmental Protection, Sanitation and the Fire Department.

"The largest-ever increase in the City's electric-powered vehicle fleet is not only good for the environment, it's good for city taxpayers, too," Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith said in an announcement. "Using electric vehicles reduces air pollution and carbon emissions while also lowering gasoline consumption."

The vehicles were purchased using grant money from the U.S. Department of Energy and the New York Power Authority.