Quote:
Originally Posted by rubicon
When I moved here in 2006 the most popular cat was electric. Today its gas carts. I wonder why   |
Nationwide, electric carts outsell gas by a huge margin. Electrics are less costly to run and maintain and will last a lot longer.
My guess is that there are two reasons as to why there are so many gas carts here. Number one, Yamaha makes the best gas golf carts. They made them even better when the introduce EFI. I don't believe that the developer owns the Yamaha dealerships here, but there certainly seems to be a very close relationship between the two.
Secondly, before the advent of 8 six volt battery configuration and the Ranger batteries, electric were limited to a range of only about 20-25 miles on a charge. As The Villages grew, residents wanted to travel greater distances. The only solution was gas carts.
Also nationwide, there are more Club Cars (mostly electric) sold than any other brand. EX-Go sells more (again mostly electric) than third place finisher, Yamaha. Like I say, there's something different about The Villages where Yamaha seems to be the brand of choice.
Part of this could be the application. Most golf carts sold in the world are sold in fleets to be used on golf courses. If a course can get two rounds a day out it's fleet it will do very well. Until Club Car invented the 48 volt system, two rounds was pushing the limit. The 48 volt system allowed courses to get up to three rounds out of one charge. Still that's only about twelve miles. In The Villages and other golf cart communities people want to be able to travel much more than 12 miles in a day. Now with better electric technology I'm wondering if we'll see the pendulum begin to swing back to electrics.