I have an ‘09 Yamaha that burns about three gallons of gas a month. Not much pollution in three gallons of gas.

Given that the OP asked about the pollution coming from a gas powered golf cart, it is interesting to see how far in the weeds this thread has gone.

To the OP - A few people have answered the CO2 question. The other pollutants (NOx, CO, and unburned hydrocarbons) are important as well. On a car, these are significantly reduced by the catalytic converter. While a quick google search turned up some state and national figures, I did not find figures for gasoline engines in golf carts. NIOSH did have a report of a farmer who died after being in an enclosed space for 30 minutes with an 11 HP gasoline engine running. While this is not a quantitative number, it does show that a significant amount of CO was produced. If I can track down some reliable figures for the pollutants in the exhaust of small, 4 stroke engines, I will let you know.

No, but they're allowed INSIDE the passenger compartment.

Perhaps you should check the regulations, but I believe the FAA also prohibits "containers of gasoline" from being checked as luggage.

Of course, keeping a few gallons of gas in your garage, shouldn't be of any concern to your family.

Does the FAA allow a gallon of gasoline in the cargo hold of a passenger plane? Just trying to get a comparison…

Interesting premise. Not sure I agree...

I'm going to start a poll. Let's see what the numbers say...

Edit: Can anyone find a link that let's you add a poll?

I can't speak to your model specifically, but in total, gas golf carts in TV produce an enormous amount of pollution (including mine).

I bike seven days a week, mostly on the multimodal paths. My bikes accumulate a greasy black coating on both the tires and frame. Just touching my bike when it has not been recently cleaned leaves my fingers all black. I worry about the effect on my lungs.

I do a similar amount of riding in a northern state, and my bikes there never build up this kind of exhaust crud.

Right on. !!!!!

I thought there were one or two polls on this about a year ago. If I can find them.....

I'm not sure what the best selling cart in the Villages is these days. All I'm saying is that there must be a lot of non-Yamahas being sold if there are enough of them on the trails to be noticeable.

Well, I first became aware of some of them when you couldn't buy a Yamaha gas cart at any of the stores.

But I still see the Yamahas outweighing the others by 10:1...

That’s not because of demand, it’s a supply shortage issue.
Long waits for a new quiet tech, but you can drive off the lot this afternoon with a new electric cart.

Here is a EPA reference for pollution from nonroad compression ignition engines.

https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P100OA05.pdf

A Yamaha gas golf cart has an 11.4 HP engine which would equate to about 8.5 KW. Based on this table using the row for 8 to 19 KW engines, you would expect to see:
56.1 g/hr of CO,
63.75g/hr of NOx, and
3.4g/hr of particulate matter.

This is for new engines which are in excellent running order. Engines that are not tuned properly or have substantial wear will have different numbers. None of this talks about unburned hydrocarbons of which a good bit is benzene.

Hope this helps.

I have no idea how many quiet techs were available last October. I know there were a bunch on the showroom floor. But that didn't matter, I was looking for an electric cart.

I can't speak for others (though I can guess) but in my case it was 100% about demand.

Please define "an enormous amount". How much is that????? How does it compare to say a riding lawnmower, a weed trimmer, a car, a bus, a jet or a Space X rocket???? Or, and this is far more likely, it is a personal opinion based on absolutely nothing factual whatsoever.

Use your high school chemistry. Gasoline is C8H18. It takes 12.5 oxygen molecules (O2) for perfect combustion to 8 CO2 molecules and 9 water molecules (H2O). Carbon molecular weight is 12, Oxygen 16, Hydrogen 1. You can do the math yourself but 1 gasoline molecule is 114 and 8 CO2 molecules are 352. So it takes 477 pounds of gasoline to generate 1474 pounds of CO2, which is not far off from your off-the-cuff estimate. In practice, a small amount of CO is produced so the theoretical amount of CO2 is slightly less, but it's definitely not fake news.

:boom::mademyday:

A lot of the golf carts you see out there are older which reflects the "what it was".
Last year when I bought my golf cart from golf carts in the villages they said 40% of the golf carts they sell are Lithium electric. Since Yamaha does not make a lithium powered golf cart that is readily sold here in the villages you have to assume that the numbers are trending away from Yamaha.

If CO2 causes the green house atmosphere, i.e. global warming. Then why is Mars so cold as the majority of it's atmosphere is CO2?

Is this a serious question or another attempt to dispute the effect of CO2 as a greenhouse gas? If the former then start by realizing there are far more differences than similarities and the differences matter.

Or... The supply chain for the Yamaha Drive2 was still lagging...

When I first settled on my home in TV (in February 2021), the stores were full of Yamahas.

6 months later, when I was looking to buy a cart, there were barely any available...

We wound up buying a really clean used cart (which probably was for the best, since we're still part timers)... Why spend all that $$$ on a new cart just to have it sit...

When we make the big move (hopefully around this time next year), we'll consider replacing the cart with a newer one. We'll try the new electrics vs the new Yamahas and make our decision...

But right now, I'm leaning towards a 2019 or newer Quietech...

Anyone who states that battery power does not have pollution issues is dreaming. However, they win the fight when it comes to “emissions.” They use electricity for charging, from power plants that burn fossil fuels. That being said, I own an electric golf cart and love it. I have also owned a Tesla and loved that. There is no way to go totally electric, it just is not feasible. So it looks like it will be a side by side use issue. Why should it be one against the other?

EXACTLY, and that's the very part of "go electric" that very few, if anyone, ever mentions !

I am not disagreeing or being at all insincere in this, but just from my own observations on this: could the extraordinary number of lawn service trucks, and trailers, etc. in the villages with trucks that just gush out totally disgusting, black clouds of smoke constantly, also add to this "exhaust crud" ? I about chocked to death just waiting in the line from 466 to get through the gate to to get to Pimlico rec center. Never lived in any community, even in some wealthy areas, where so many people had lawn and landscape workers, and every day of the week ? Even on Sundays ? I always assumed most communities were like those where we have lived in different places, yard workers can only work in the development on certain days, we lived in one where on on T. and Th., but whatever, it does seem there is more black smoke coming out of old trucks than any place we've lived.... perhaps there is no truck inspection required here too ? Just one possible reason.

What about all the burning that goes on and produces pollution?

I want to decrease my carbon footprint, so I hold my breath.

There's more carbon coming out of the politicians mouths than out golf cars.

Doubt that, since they don’t talk out of their mouths

CO2 is not a pollutant...CO2 is not a pollutant. CO2 is not a pollutant. Please throw your TeeVee away.

It does emit NOx and CO but nothing compared to what naturally seeps out of the Earth...for billions of years.

The one downside of an electric cart is that you aren't feeding the plants as you drive.

Cars probably emit less pollutants/unburnt gas than a golf cart due to emission controls on cars. Just drive behind a golf cart and through a tunnel

All electric carts are not practical for a lot of cases. I don't think most people from south of 44 would feel very comfortable taking an electric cart to LSL and back. People with gas carts make that trip all the time.

I have a Yamaha gas cart, but we rented a lithium electric cart when we had extra visitors for almost a week.

We almost ended up with the electric cart running out of juice on the way home just by going to a restaurant and then one of the squares and back in a 4 hour span. We were down to something like 5% battery according to the dashboard. Was not much more than 20 miles of total driving. It seems when they claim a 40 mile range it becomes almost half that if you're averaging 20-25 MPH.

I don't care if my lithium electric cart has "only" a 60 mile range, or that it is "bad" for the environment. The driving experience is far better than any brand of gas cart around, and zero maintenance to boot. Gas carts stink in more ways than one.

I have driven in my electric cart from Eisenhower to Savannah Center to Spanish Springs to Lake Sumter Landing to Sawgrass to Ednas to Brownwood and back to Eisenhower with at least 1/4 charge remaining. That's 42 miles with at least 14 miles remaining. People south of 44 can drive to Lake Sumter Landing and back with no concern in a modern EV cart.

Sounds like you are a responsible electric cart owner who realizes the range of your cart and acts accordingly. Unfortunately, not everyone is like you. I recently spoke with an employee of one of the golf cart rescue services and learned that their number of rescue calls has exploded along with the overall increase in electric cart usage in the Villages. They are either going to have to increase rates for everyone or begin charging different rates for electric and gas carts because of the significantly higher number of rescue calls per electric cart customer. I was told many people have a false sense of security regarding their carts range because they have newer technology lithium batteries and fail to keep their carts adequately charged. As an owner of gas golf carts, I hope they opt for tiered pricing rather than increasing rates for all types of golf carts.

That's great. Just be careful doing the same trip next year, the following year, etc.

I agree that electric carts are quieter, less smelly and create less local pollution.

I just happen to own a Yesteryear gas cart built in 2006 on a 2004 Club Car Frame. We use it for golf and mail, neighborhood travel, nightly trips to lake Sumter Landing, local shopping to Colony and Lake Sumter landing and a few other things. We fill it whenever gage says near half but only when near a gas source, ie no special trips. Always have a 2.5 Gallon reserve of fuel properly stored for emergency. I am guessing no more than 50 Miles per week traveled. Fuel usage, fill up every couple of weeks, whenever we reach 1/2 tank. Usually 2 Gal +.

Bottom line - no worry about distance on any Village Trip even if Power Outage for several weeks. No concern regarding distance due to age of battery. No towing because of cart Fuel/Power requirements.

Would not make any change unless current cart S T Bed, My impact on global pollution is less than the cost of producing a new electric cart

I've often thought it was unfortunate more people were not like me :D

That's interesting information about the cart rescues. As easy as it is to keep the cart charged I am surprised that some have problems with it. It will be a shame if rates have to increase due to those that can't remember to plug the cart in or check the charge before leaving.

I fill my cart. I go 200 plus miles before I fill up. I never worry about running out of juice for a week or two. Just my choice.

Gas vehicles do not emit Carbon...

HC + O2 -> H2O + CO2

Plants consume CO2 + H2O and emit O2 for the Meatsacks.

Of course this is oversimplified and neglects the effects of nitrogen in the air and inefficient/incomplete burning of the fuel in the engine.

But that aside, do you see that "C" in CO2 on the right hand side? In chemistry that represents carbon and being on the right hand side shows that it is a product of the reaction. Sure, it is bound with O2 in your oversimplified equation but that could arguably be worse for the environment.

Carbon is not Carbon Dioxide....How do you not know that? What is your CV?

Is Hydrogen water?

Modern cars actually scrub the natural air of CO and NOx...Mother Nature doesn't wear a catalytic converter and has been spuing them for billions of years.

Environmentalism is a religion of nihilistic 5th grade dropouts...Their Sky-mommy is Gaia and their Daughter of Gaia is a mentally ill Swedish teenager named Greta.

I kid you not!

CO2 is plant fertilizer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOwHT8yS1XI

As the planet naturally warms...Atmospheric CO2 and H2O increases.

Thank you. It irritates me to no end when we hear about "carbon emissions". Carbon is an element. Carbon Dioxide is a molecular compound.

I think the idea behind conflating the two was to evoke images of graphite which is black. To make people think of carbon emissions as dirty, not as plant food.

Do you think the same message would be conveyed if they said "Diamond emissions?" After all, diamonds are 99.5% carbon and at STP have more carbon in them than CO2.

When you are driving on the street, you're making diamonds. Considering most electricity is not made from renewables, this applies to your Telsa, electric cart or gas vehicle.