Quote:
Originally Posted by MangiaMangia
We own a battery golf cart.
Used a friend's gas cart for the weekend.
Here's my pros and cons of each.
Gas - More reliable - if I run out of gas, call a friend bring a jug.
Electric - loss of charge - now what?
Gas - Goes faster by a few MPH.
Battery - Stays right around 20/21. Yes, I know, 20 is the limit in the Villages.
AFTER THOSE 2 OBSERVATIONS ELECTRIC WINS THE REST OF THE DEBATE
Electric - Doesn't smell! We hate driving behind gas carts.
Electric - What? Can't hear you. Couldn't hear our phone music or talk to each other in the gas cart.
If the quiet gas carts are truly quiet then this won't be an issue.
Electric - buy batteries ($900+) every 3 to 4 years.
Gas - buy gas every week or so (that adds up too over the years)
Gas - oil changes and other engine maintenance.
As others have already said too : we go EVERYWHERE in our electric golf cart. Never an issue about loss of power.
When we get home we always plug it in ready for the next adventure out.
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Thank you, good info and seems to sum it up. The high cost of batteries you mentioned, seems to put off many in the gas camp, but when you look at total cost of ownership over say 10 years, the two are very close - as you mentioned gas, oil and maintenance on the gas add up over time. So, the choice is pay a little constantly or pay a bunch every few years.
The new Lithium batteries have longer range and last longer - up to 8 years, which is "forever" for me, since I expect technology to move on and by then I will want a newer model.
One issue with lead acid batteries that you didn't mention which is a show stopper for me is constant maintenance requirements. All the little things, like water getting low kills the battery, self discharge (if we go on a cruise and don't have something to maintain the battery we can come back to dead batteries that need to be replaced, etc.)
We do not want anything that is going to require maintenance when we are not home, so the choice to us is between lithium and gas.
And I have another 2 months to continue my/our flip-flopping between those two or just keeping our Yaris (second car) which gets about 35 mpg, and an oil change annually. Almost as cheap to drive as a golf cart, and it's air-conditioned.