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Street Legal Golf Carts - Bintelli Electric Vehicles

Street Legal Golf Carts

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Street legal golf carts, also known as neighborhood electric vehicles can be driven on roads with a speed of 35 mph or less in most states. These street legal golf carts can be found on college campuses, military bases, beach towns, resorts, commercial properties, and in residential neighborhoods. Bintelli electric street legal golf carts are equipped with headlights, brake lights, turn signals, seat belts, and mirrors making these low speed vehicles legal on streets. Enjoy browsing our selection of neighborhood electric vehicles and street legal golf carts for sale. If you can’t find the golf cart you are looking for give us a call at (866) 542-8677 or fill out our contact form.

Street Legal Golf Carts

Electric golf carts were invented in the 1930’s and became popular in the 1950’s onwards. A relatively simple design, they gradually became more sophisticated over the years and towards the late seventies they began to be taken off the golf course and used as a slow but reassuringly safe way for the elderly to get from one point to another in their retirement communities. As these vehicles began to make their way onto the roads used by normal gas-powered cars, the safety of the electric golf cart became an issue. Designated Low-Speed Vehicles (LSV), also called Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles (NEV), the Department of Transportation employed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an organization instigated to reduce traffic deaths, to develop standards of safety called Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). In 1998 they defined safety standards for low-speed vehicles/ neighborhood electric vehicles. If these standards are met, then that is only a starting point for street legal status. Street legal status can only be granted by state law authorities. Of course, ordering your electric golf cart from a state local dealership, and specify street legal then you are guaranteed to have a cart you can drive on the road in your state.

Street legal electric golf carts are used in a multitude of ways. They are the most common way for the elderly to get around their retirement communities. Florida’s “The Villages” is a retirement community consisting of 100,000 people, all aged 55 or above. Its immaculately manicured streets are 100 miles of intricate roadways full of street legal electric golf carts. There are 40,000 low-speed vehicles in The Villages, and they are used for all the transportation needs, within the community. Shopping, entertainment, exercise classes, education and, yes, golf, are the destinations their carriages convey them to. The leisurely pace of life in the retirement community led to a lack of interest in internal combustion engine vehicles. It was overkill, expensive and dangerous in comparison. LSVs are inexpensive to buy, cheap to maintain and safe because speed is just not required by these people. They are unable by law to go above 25 mph in traffic zones where the speed limit is 35 mph. Where the speed limit is above 35 mph, low speed vehicles are not allowed. These are safe speeds that result in very few accidents provided seat belts are worn.

Farmers are using them as utility vehicles, and they can take on lots of jobs such as touring crops and livestock, transporting feed and tools, moving from road to off-road. Four wheel drive, as well as camo paint jobs, are all available at a price. They are taking on the role of a Jeep of Land Rover at a fraction of the cost. Utility vehicle engines run from 8 horsepower to 18 horsepower and can come with Manual or hydraulic dump beds, for cleaning stalls, hauling dirt, bedding and mulch, and a variety of landscape and small construction projects.

Some golf carts are fifteen seater shuttles and can go up to 50 miles on a single charge and are, unlike internal combustion engine busses, very quiet and have optional air conditioning. Many of these shuttles have doors to the seats for inclement weather. Could this be the future of public transportation?

Another option for buying a street legal electric golf cart is that of a self-assembly kit to convert nonstreet legal to street legal. It is quite a cool way to see how defined your state laws are because each kit will have components specific to your state. For example, a Florida kit will come with a weight slip and a license plate bracket with light. This is not required by the other states. You can make all of these modifications yourself, but you’d better be right if you don’t want a ticket from the police.

You know that a trend is emerging with a class of product when a luxury end of the spectrum begins to emerge. The Garia is the luxury range of LSV, designed Danish designer Anders Lynge and manufactured at the Valmet Automotive factory in Finland, is the European version of luxury low-speed vehicle which concentrates on looks together with practical design specifications. It even has an on board refrigerator, for cocktails presumably, together with GPS navigation. For a brash American fifties style golf cart, check out the four-seater California Roadster from Bad Ass Golf Carts. Options include stereo, satellite radio, TV, custom wheels and seats and custom paint. And custom carts are an increasingly popular way to stand out in the crowd. Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, 1934 Street Rod, Humvee, and T-Bird are slick tributes in perfectly packaged street legal golf cart form are all on the market for a price.

Insuring your LSV is as essential as it is for a normal road going vehicle. Full coverage insurance, in addition to property damage coverages for the golf cart, means Bodily Injury Liability Coverage and Uninsured Motorist/Underinsured Motorist coverage, as well as PIP/No-Fault insurance and Medical Payments insurance coverage. You must then register your vehicle with the Department Of Motor Vehicles. You probably will not be able to buy insurance before buying the Street Legal Golf Cart, but you can still discuss options with your insurance broker before buying. In a study by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, it was found that golf cart-related injuries occur at a rate of 15,000 cases every year. Insurance is not a trivial thing.

We are bound to see more and more street legal golf carts as the pressure for greener options increases and the authorities promote ever more enticing incentives for greener transport. The electric golf cart is a nice alternative to the car, being autonomous but safe, relatively stress-free to drive and giving the driver the same independence (within certain distance considerations) that a car has. In the cities, motor vehicle speeds are ever slowing because there are more and more cars and no space to build more roads. Many city dwellers have been taking to the bicycle as a way to commute to and from the city. In London, there has been an explosion of cycling due primarily to the fact that the London authorities made cycling safer through various traffic handling schemes, mostly the introduction of cycle lanes and cycle superhighways. Encouraging the use of street legal golf carts in cities could be effected in a similar way.

Street Legal Electric Golf Carts for Sale

Electric golf carts were first used on golf courses in the 1930’s to aid those who had trouble walking but did not gain a widespread usage until the 1950’s. They were under the official name “golf cars” as a cart was defined as not being self-powered. There were some suppliers including Cushman, Taylor-Dunn and Harley Davidson. Gas powered vehicles were produced but were considered too noisy for the golf course. Acceptance was not universal with some courses asking for a doctor’s note to demonstrate a need for the use of the cart. During the 1970’s golf carts drifted off the golf course with some manufacturers responding quickly to demand adding rear cargo boxes, baskets on the front and bigger models with extra seating. They began to be used for transportation in small communities and airports. In 1986 Yamaha introduced the first electric street legal golf cart called a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV). However, laws in different states were not made with the NEV in mind, and there was some confusion about where owners stood. The federally approved street-legal vehicle classification came into existence in 1998..

The exterior design and specs have continued to evolve, but the basic design remains the same. There is an array of battery packs under the seat which attaches to an electric motor which propels the vehicle to top speed of 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) and has a maximum loaded weight of 3,000 lb. They are recharged by plugging into a standard outlet, and the batteries will last around the 3-6 year mark. The limit to the speed is set by law and not engineering, and with some models, it is possible to modify the cart to go faster than the top 25 mph, but then the vehicle becomes subject to the same laws as passenger vehicles.

Golf Carts have a multitude of uses away from the golf course. Farmers use them to get around their fields, hunters have modified them to go off road, and into the wild, complete with camo water print body job, they are used to transport police and security staff around small communities, cargo is transported, and people are carried with up to fifteen seats. The Nevada National Security Site is being watched over by a small fleet of unmanned robotic golf carts checking on the Nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. And that’s not including the street legal carts.

According to Technavio 2015, the global market for electric vehicles was valued at more than $83.5 billion in 2012, the US with 38% are of that. Ingersoll Rand and Textron were the major manufacturers. The incessant promotion of nonfossil fuel transportation is only likely to increase the demand and the supply, with incentives being dangled in front of both sides of the supply/demand equation. Tesla electric cars are the only feasible alternative, and they are expensive and unknown quantities in comparison. The golf cart and the NEV are not going anywhere soon.

The green angle to electric golf carts is one of the most compelling reasons for enthusiasm. The Obama administration made provision for tax breaks to encourage this type of green transportation over internal combustion engine alternatives. Peachtree City, a community south of Atlanta has more than 90 miles of golf cart paths, and residents use these roads to travel between the five villages in the community, and almost every family has one in this 35,000 active community with approximately 10,000 NEVs promoting the low carbon attitude. Many small towns and gated communities allow golf carts, as well as NEVs on their public streets.

The lure of customization of these otherwise rather dull little carts has a gravitational pull, and many dealers will do custom paint jobs and accessorize the vehicle at a cost. There are also third party businesses that will customize for specific purposes, for example a customer requested a four wheel drive street legal golf with 2 LED light bars, crash barriers for undergrowth and an electrically powered winch. There are plenty of golf carts that have been “pimped” by their owners. A golf cart is, after all, upwards of $4000 and customization will cost a percentage of that, sometimes packaged at the dealership. The fact that you will be seen driving around your community in these electrical golf carts is bound to encourage individualization.

The main advantages of electric golf carts are that it does not expel any emissions, poisonous or otherwise. That is reason enough for many, and is something in which to boast. Also, they are more or less silent. Electrics have a lot fewer moving parts. Therefore maintenance over time tends to be less of a pain and less expensive. The batteries are preserved better by cold weather storage so locking it up for the winter helps maintain the hardware.

Disadvantages of electric carts are virtually non-existent with the main argument being that the distances you can travel are limited between charges. They are not designed to be fast, and they aren’t, but of course that makes them safer than faster vehicles. The batteries eventually have to be replaced, and those batteries don’t have the horsepower of an internal combustion engine vehicle of a similar design.

We offer a variety of street legal golf carts for sale and are able to customize any number to your specific needs.

5 Fun Facts About Golf Carts:

1 -Bubba Watson gives a glimpse of the future with his flying golf cart. “I’ve teamed up with Oakley to create a flying, golf cart jetpack.” The futuristic machine can fly at an altitude of 3,000ft and reach a top speed of just under 50mph. http://www.golf.com/extra-spin/watch-bubba-watson-oakley-create-golf-jet-pack-ahead-olympics

2 – “MIT’s Autonomous Golf Carts Show That The Future Driverless City Might Not Even Need Cars” self-driving golf cars are next on the horizon! https://www.fastcoexist.com/3050960/mits-autonomous-golf-carts-show-that-the-future-driverless-city-might-not-even-need-cars

3 – “Electric Golf Cart Reaches 118 MPH, Sets World Record” http://gas2.org/2014/11/14/electric-golf-cart-reaches-118-mph-sets-world-record/

4 – Super luxury golf cart on the market: The Garia, Rolls Royce of golf carts http://www.garia.com/ 5 – A lot of electrical golf carts mimic classic cars like the Dodge Viper, Chevrolet Camaro, the Lamborghini Countach and the 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air http://uk.complex.com/sports/2012/10/25-crazy-golf-carts/[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”What makes a golf cart street legal?” tab_id=”1494517929830-3bf0e462-f712″][vc_column_text]The terms “street legal” and “road going” are synonymous with car manufacturers like BMW, Toyota, and Porsche, among others. In fact, most of what you know about street legal cars probably started with these brands. But when it comes to golf carts, what exactly does it mean to be a street legal golf cart? More specifically, what makes a golf cart street legal?

Characteristics of Street Legal Golf Carts  The first challenge when it comes to defining a street legal golf cart is that different states have different standards for their vehicles’ operation on the road. Many residents are turning to golf carts for usage on roadways, so it is paramount to be familiar with the guidelines of a street legal vehicle. This include:

Speed

The maximum speed of a street legal golf cart should range from 20 to 25 mph, which is the primary requirement for low-speed vehicles. Additionally, you ma need to present a certificate of origin from the manufacturer as proof of a slow speed vehicle. If the golf cart cannot achieve this speed, the motor should be enhanced alongside its corresponding components.

Noticeability

For a golf cart to be considered street legal, it should be fitted with tail lamps, turn signal lamps, stop lamps, and headlights. Like with any other vehicle, you should be able to turn your lights on or signal when turning, especially in the dark. After installing all the lights accordingly, test them to ensure you are familiar with how they work while driving.

Visibility

Any street legal golf car should be equipped with rear view mirrors and reflex reflectors. This will give the driver a clear, unobstructed view of the rear, which will, in turn, minimize related incidents and even deaths.

Adjust all the mirrors before taking on the road, just like you would do with a normal vehicle. Windscreens and windscreen wipers are also a must. It is important to ascertain that the ones you have can withstand a rainstorm as this can significantly compromise the visibility inside the vehicle.

Personal Safety

A roadworthy golf cart should also have functioning seat belts. Ensure that every seat has its seat belts (if there is more than one seat). Also, the belts should always be worn every time you are riding the vehicle on the road to be consistent with state law.

#Identification

You should have a vehicle identification number (VIN) for your vehicle. This is used for quick identification. If your golf cart did not come with a VIN, seek out the required paperwork enabling you to drive on the road.
Other considerations

Horn

Although seemingly not the most significant piece of safety equipment, with several big cities even limiting its usage, a street legal vehicle should have an audible horn that can be heard from 200 feet or more. The horn can be any sound or note, as long as it meets the minimum volume requirements.

Steering Wheel

You’re probably aware that any vehicle needs a steering wheel not only to be street legal but to be drivable as well. However, there are limitations on the types of steering wheels a golf cart should have. To be considered a street legal golf cart, the steering wheel should not be “butterfly” shaped or look like a fighter jet joystick. Rather, the vehicle should be fitted with a circular wheel at least thirteen inches along its exterior diameter.

Brakes

This is also a no-brainer. Brakes are required in a road going golf court primarily for parking purposes. The added twist most people do not consider is that the parking brake must be functional.

Evasion devices

It goes without saying: anything that enables evasion of law enforcement by damaging other vehicles or obscuring views is going to be illegal. This includes oil slicks, caltrops, and smoke screens. Some jurisdictions actually limit the use of jammers or radar detectors too. It is also important to note that a golf cart is classified as a low-speed vehicle and should be treated as such. This means:

*If your child is not licensed or old enough to drive a car, then he or she is not qualified to drive a golf cart

*You cannot stand on the side and drive the golf cart or drive it on the sidewalk – any laws that apply to a the personal vehicle also applies to your golf cart

Contact us if you have any questions regarding our street legal golf carts for sale.

Insurance

After buying a golf cart, one must consider whether they want to purchase golf cart insurance. Most residents in the interior drive traditional golf carts that sprint up to 20mph and don’t need to be insured or registered. But this is not in line with NEVs, which are commonly designed with a maximum speed of 25mph And a max loaded weight of 3,000lbs. They are permissible on roads that have a maximum speed limit of 35 mph. Irrespective of whether or not you are required by law to acquire golf cart insurance; it is in your best interest to do so. But which type of insurance should you go for? Should you purchase a single golf cart insurance policy or add it to your homeowner’s policy? A typical homeowner’s insurance does not cover medical costs or third-party injuries. From this end, it is advisable to purchase a distinct golf cart insurance.

A policy that offers the following packages:
*Collision coverage: This will cover your golf cart in case it is damaged from a collision with other objects or vehicles, regardless of fault

*Liability coverage: This covers property damage and third party injuries caused by a golf cart accident

*Medical payments coverage: This will cover medical care resulting from a golf cart accident

The requirements above ensure maximum safety for both drivers and pedestrians when street legal golf carts are on the road. When looking for street legal golf carts for sale, keep in mind that there may be additional rules and regulations depending on your state or where you are. Hopefully, golf carts will become a permanent fixture on the road in the future. To this end, you should expect the Department of Transportation to provide a uniform guideline to be followed.