Talk of The Villages Florida - Electric golf cart charging portals

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Quote:

Originally Posted by ronvillages (Post 1713884)

Lots of malls have cell phone charging stations. Lots of places have electricity car charging stations. Yes, it would be nice if the 3 town square golf cart shops had a quick charge station..even if there was a fee.

Even? Why wouldn’t there be fee?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomSpasm (Post 1716424)

I moved here in 2011, bought in early 2012, bought a used 2008 Club Car electric w/4 12 volt batteries for 4K, modified it to use 8 6-volt batteries for better distance, and have replaced those batteries twice, once very recently. So I've got about 7K into my cart. Many of my neighbors have already replaced the new gas carts they bought for 12K in 2012 with another 12K gas cart...and they still insist that gas carts are cheaper to run!

I have been stranded by a bad battery once. I've been stranded twice on golf courses by gas carts that ran out of gas while we were playing golf.

My garage doesn't stink, and I don't stink up golf cart tunnels.

More importantly, my cart just goes when I hit the gas pedal, it doesn't hesitate like a gas cart. And it doesn't sound or smell like a gas cart...

One advantage I have is a central location, Lopez and Belle Glade are the same distance from my house. If I lived on one edge of the Villages or the other, I might consider a gas cart, otherwise there is no comparison in my opinion. I would gladly pay more for the benefits of an electric cart. I have yet to see or ride in any gas cart that I would trade mine for straight-up. I've never understood the insistence of the overwhelming majority that a gas cart is sooo superior...they're not!

You should take class in how To maintain and drive gas golf cart if you buy gas cart. Who goes out on golf course with empty tank on gas cart? You’re garage does smell, the smell of batteries charging. And yes I’ve had both.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackie (Post 1716597)

I recorded the electricity used to charge my cart in 2013/2014 each week for 52 weeks and 4,710 miles. This was a ParCar with 1 year old batteries when I started recording, they were 8 x 6v Trojans. I still have the spreadsheet for this.

At that time electricity cost was 11.615 cents per kWh and my cost to charge was 2.269 cents per mile.

The amortized battery cost over almost 5 years (the life of those batteries and about 22,000 miles) was about 3.6 cents per mile. My usage went to about 5,200 per year and the cart was used every day and charged every day.

The total cost for charging and battery purchase was just less that 6 cents per mile.

So, on average over the year, it took .1964 kWh of electricity per mile to charge - I haven’t looked up the current cost for electricity but it’s probably not a lot more.

This is great, thanks, exactly what I was hoping for and more :)

Am I reading this right? It's curiously similar to run gas? $2.50 gal/40mpg=6.25 cents per mile plus a little bit for maintenance?

The EFI Yamaha carts get 50 MPG or approximately 5 cents per mile, at least mine does. I spend about 1 cent per mile for maintenance. These operating costs are small when compared to the depreciation if you buy a new cart. For example, the depreciation on my cart after almost 6 years is about 30 cents per mile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fastskiguy (Post 1716619)

This is great, thanks, exactly what I was hoping for and more :)

Am I reading this right? It's curiously similar to run gas? $2.50 gal/40mpg=6.25 cents per mile plus a little bit for maintenance?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fastskiguy (Post 1716619)

This is great, thanks, exactly what I was hoping for and more :)

Am I reading this right? It's curiously similar to run gas? $2.50 gal/40mpg=6.25 cents per mile plus a little bit for maintenance?

Yes, you are reading this correctly. When I originally did this I think the cost of gas was much higher than now, so at that time the running costs of an electric was lower than a gas cart. Probably now about they are about the same.

Even if the electric was more expensive to run, the quality of ride - fast off the line, quiet running, smoother ride and no fumes was worth it for me. Range was never an issue for me, I probably had at least 50 miles and the most I remember using was 27 miles. Usually around 12 - 18 miles per day.

Maintenance was inexpensive, I had a guy come once per year to service it, he lubed the suspension, rotated the tires, checked the brake adjustment although having regenerative braking meant there was almost no wear. Then there was no engine to service so overall maintenance is much easier and there is much less to do on an electric cart.

I didn’t have a battery watering system so would unscrew the battery caps on the first day of every month and top up with distilled water - maybe 15 minutes. I sprayed a protective layer on the terminals so never had corrosion or a problem there.