As police departments wean themselves off the Ford Crown Victoria, they'll be buying run-of-the-mill pursuit cars from Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet  -- unless someone at the Los Angeles Auto Show pens something special.

This year, the show's Design Challenge, an annual competition open to automakers and individual designers, calls for sketches of futuristic police cars as imagined in 2025. Judges from art and design schools will award the best concept during the show's press events Nov. 29 (be patient, as the competition's registration still hasn't opened). While General Motors, BMW and even Bentley have promised to submit entries, anyone can compete, so long as the concepts involve "advanced powertrains, alternative fuels, telemetrics and new sizes to effectively navigate dynamic urban environments," according to the auto show.

Aside from a few Nissan Leaf patrol cars in Portugal and a pursuit Lamborghini Gallardo in Italy, most police cars -- even the latest Ford Taurus Interceptor and Chevrolet Caprice PPV -- don't offer much more than their civilian counterparts. But Carbon Motors, an Indiana-based automaker that plans to produce the world's first purpose-built cruiser, seems to have satisfied the show's challenge by a few years. Its E7 (pictured above) is already a rolling prototype.

The E7 comes from the factory with license-plate readers, integrated bumper "bashers" and a turbodiesel engine -- not to mention a rear seat that can be washed with a hose and is accessible by suicide doors. The only problems are the car's high cost, unknown reliability and lack of servicing dealers. While Carbon Motors says it has collected more than 20,000 reservations from all 50 states, its finances are in disarray. The company was denied a $310 million federal loan and saw its proposed manufacturing plant go to another buyer.

Our guess? In 13 years, no matter what technology debuts, we'll bet our insurance premiums that Crown Victorias will continue scaring us straight.

[Source: PR Newswire via Edmunds]