The Golf Cart Stimulus: A Little Background

John C Triolo, Golf CarCatalog.Com

Recent articles in the Wall Street Journal & on FoxBusiness.com, and featured stories on TV news have revealed there is a federal tax credit for the purchase of a 'golf cart'. This Cash for Clubbers stimulus package has the print media & the talking heads worked up into a fine lather, not to mention a public that doesn't understand what these vehicles really are. As part of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, the purchase of a so-called 'golf cart' now qualifies for a federal tax credit of up to $5500.00, compliments of your local taxpayer, provided the cart is 'road worthy'. Some states are adding their own tax credit for buyers. At any rate, from the articles and stories sited it appears the authors know very little about 'golf carts' or its red headed step child, the Low Speed Vehicle. Let's take a closer look at the evolution of the 'golf cart' and over the past 55 years.

Golf cars (they are CARS, not carts) are the most populist form of transportation today. They are everywhere, moving people & cargo around thousands of communities throughout America. You will find golf cars not just at the enclaves of the wealthy but at beaches, campgrounds, race tracks, businesses, your grandparent's home and myriad other locales. Owners have taken to the streets with them because they are so convenient. The first of these unique little cars for use on golf courses were created in 1954, in Augusta, Georgia. The game of golf would never have grown to the scale it has without them. Today they are available by the thousands as they come off golf course lease programs to the tune of about ¼ million units per year (approx 75% are battery powered). They are cheap, reliable and well made (after all, they were built to carry inebriated golfers across the rough and tumble fairways of yore). Truth be told, they are the electric car of today.

Golf cars, by definition, are not road worthy. The manufacturers have fought tooth and nail against this grassroots transition from the fairway to the public roads. Read the safety label on the dashboard! This has not stopped Americans from customizing this cool mobile platform into their Ride. In 1998, as more & more golf cars were being driven on the public roads of America, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA{pronounced nitsa}) decided to create a new class of motor vehicle they dubbed a Low Speed Vehicle (LSV), as broadly defined in Rule 500 of their regulations and subsequent revisions. The moniker NEV, for Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, has become somewhat passé but it sure rolls off the tongue better.

Narrowly defined, an LSV must have head, tail and brake lights with turn indicators, seat belts for each passenger and it must be able to go faster than 20mph (a new golf car cannot be manufactured to go this speed) but no faster than 25mph (some states are cheating on this) and it may be operated on public roads with a speed limit of 35mph or less. It must have a 17 digit Vehicle ID Number (VIN) and if new, must be made by a federally licensed motor vehicle manufacturer. A Low Speed Vehicle must be registered & titled with the state DMV, tagged, insured, inspected and operated by a licensed (sober) driver. It is not a toy or a golf car; it is a class of motor vehicle like a motorcycle or automobile, and subject to the same legal requirements, it just goes slower. And to earn the tax credit it must be battery powered.

Unfortunately the NHTSA final ruling was somewhat vague so various states have added their own flavor to the definition of an LSV and this has resulted in a plethora of state & local regulations (strangulations) that has hampered the development of the LSV. Worse, now some states, such as Georgia and North Carolina, have passed legislation that allows individual municipalities to pass THEIR own regulations governing the use of golf cars (not LSVs) on local roads. Other states, like Florida & Tennessee, allow a private individual or business to make the required speed and safety modifications to a standard golf car, take it to their state DMV for final inspection and, assuming the mods and paperwork are in order, the vehicle is issued a title & VIN number on the spot, thereby transforming the golf car into an LSV.

While a rising tide lifts all boats, this tide could tear the whole vehicle concept asunder by blurring the lines between golf cars & LSVs. It is clearly new ground for local law enforcement officials and town councils. Without more clear and mandated guidance from NHTSA the manufacturing hurdles put before companies trying to develop a real LSV industry are daunting. Ford & GM are not going to make this happen. This is a grassroots (greenshoots?) industry that could use federal encouragement to help it get legs, not 5000 dollar tax credits or a bunch of talking heads ignorantly dissing this revolution in short range transportation as elitist. LSVs can significantly reduce our national oil consumption, and carbon footprint, starting today. Who doesn't want to be green?

Is the 'Golf Cart' Stimulus Plan a good thing? A guarded YES! Why? Most Americans travel less than 35 miles per day at speeds less than 35mph. Although powered by unglamorous, old-fashioned flooded-cell lead-acid batteries (of which 99% are completely recycled) an LSV can travel this distance and speed. It is available today…no 'over the rainbow' technology…it is techNOWlogy. A solution today to help remedy our habit of burning up a precious resource--oil, regardless of the reserves that might or might not be in the ground--to crank up the auto for short trips to the store, school or work.

Entire communities, inside and outside the US, are designed with golf cars and LSVs as the main form of local transportation. Peachtree City, Georgia, has about 10,000 golf cars registered with local law enforcement, of which only a small number are used for golf. With 90+ miles of designated paths winding through their fair city, including over & underpasses to circumvent the major thoroughfares, Peachtree is not a retirement or tony country club community. Folks that can no longer get a drivers license due to age or infirmity are able to maintain their independence. Teens drive them to school…parents comforted knowing their dearest ones can't get too far away from home. Mom and Dad use them to go to the store, doctor or visit with their neighbors without having to crank up the car. Peachtree City is one example of many similar communities. What's not to like?

LSVs are not the final answer to separate oil from our autos but economical high speed pure electric transportation is a long way off. Admittedly, LSVs represent a small step, a baby step…but so what? It is a step that millions of people can take right away to help significantly reduce our domestic oil consumption. Even better it is a global solution to the wasteful burning of fossil fuels to power our short range mobility. Millions of people in developing countries wish to have the freedom of personal transportation we enjoy, Low Speed Vehicles can provide some of that freedom. In fact, many of the LSVs available in the US today are made in…you guessed it, China, a country that could dearly use them. And this tax credit is not going to break the bank because there are so few LSV manufacturers. Today the vehicles simply are not available in great numbers. This tax credit has caught the nascent industry by surprise and scrambling to keep up. This is the much bigger story, and wholly ignored.

The homegrown US & Canadian LSV manufacturers have struggled to secure adequate startup financing, battled to comply with the tangle of state & local regulations and butted heads with recalcitrate law enforcement that doesn't want another motor vehicle to contend with on tight budgets & with limited staff. Even the federal government has not yet placed LSVs on the approved Alternative Fueled Vehicles list, a move that would open up a significant new market in federal, state and military transport fleets. As regards the feared domestic 'golf cart lobby', it is basically non-existent. The Big 3--E-Z-GO, Club Car and Yamaha (all made in Georgia)--really have not introduced any Low Speed Vehicles into their model mix yet. Club Car does have a couple of specialty utility vehicles listed as LSVs and E-Z-GO is rumored to have one ready in 2010. Star Car, The Tomberlin Group and FairPlay Electric Car are making some golf car-like LSVs that may be used on the golf course as well as on the streets.

Columbia ParCar, based in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, maker of the classic Harley Davidson golf car popular in the 60s & 70s, decided years ago to leave the fleet golf car business and concentrate on making Low Speed Vehicles. Recently they landed a contract to provide the US Air Force with 799 LSVs for use at military bases. Companies such as GEM, e-Ride, Feel Good Motors, Dynasty, Wheego, Miles Electric and others have developed or are developing low speed short range transport & utility vehicles for use away from the golf course. There are still more companies that make these types of vehicles but all combined they are a drop in the bucket compared to traditional high speed on-road car & truck makers. This ain't near the scale of Cash for Clunkers.

What is bad about all this? It is never a good thing to take from one and give to another. But the government does it all the time anyway. As with any perceived free lunch there will be imitators and cheaters…companies that will pass themselves off as legitimate, competent manufacturers. The hard part of making an LSV is designing it go fast enough to qualify. This can be accomplished by adding more batteries, installing a larger motor and/or making gear changes to the final drive, this last one being a common trick to speed up a traditional golf car. While a differential gear change works well on flat terrain, allowing the car go faster than it otherwise could, when this machine ends up in hilly or mountainous areas it cannot perform the same. The heavier electrical loads imposed by the hills will prematurely burn up the electrical components if steep terrain is not factored in during the design stage. Caveat emptor!

Furthermore, DMV inspection officials will be swamped with new registrations and many state laws are too vague to interpret in a consistent way. In fact not all states have authorized the use of LSVs on their public roads. Other states have raised the top speed allowance up to 35mph. In short, there are obstacles and issues that will crop up and need to be dealt with going forward. And early adopters of this vehicle class could get burned in a similar fashion to what happened in the late 1990s and early to mid 2000s. Companies like Ford, GM and Bombardier brought these products to market only to leaving their customers in the lurch shortly thereafter when they suddenly withdrew them from the marketplace. Many owners got stuck with vehicles that they could not get repaired. Check out Ford Think on eBay.

In closing, as far as the tax credit being a Cash for Clubbers debacle, there is some truth in this. These products are not cheap and everyone does not have a use of one or can afford one even with a tax credit. But many golf courses do not allow LSVs because they are too fast, too large or do not conform. The golfer is not the intended beneficiary although there is a cross over market. Smaller, slower, battery powered vehicles used where they offer a safe, practical & efficient alternative to gas powered autos and trucks is a win for everyone. It all started with the lowly 'golf cart' and we will all breathe easier for it.