Golf carts are becoming much more popular these days, even off of the greens, for their use as alternative transportation. But would you be prepared to give up your four-wheeled golf cart for a much smaller (yet still four-wheeled) electric scooter?
It’s a bit wacky, but that makes it just right for this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column.
I’m a card-carrying member of the I Love Golf Carts alliance, or at least I would be if such a club existed. They’re just such cool vehicles for their combination of utility and efficiency. Who needs a car when you can get around in an air-open vehicle for a fraction of the cost and with zero emissions?
But it appears that even a golf cart might be too big for some people, based on how a group of Chinese engineers decided to rethink the vehicle to create an even smaller footprint.
Meet the golf scooter, a pint-sized device that could fold up to fit on the bench of a typical golf cart.
Unlike a traditional electric scooter, this one has double the wheels to create a more stable platform. There’s no need to put a foot down when you stop, at least not unless you’re stopping on a particularly steep section.
Though even there they claim that a parking brake feature will keep you solidly planted. I’ll let someone else test that feature out.
Two of the four wheels apparently sport 2,000W motors, meaning you’ve got 4 kW or just over 5 horsepower beneath your feet, neatly tucked away in something that looks like a children’s toy. That’s a similar power level to real golf carts, and so this would make for a great drag race event!
The entire vehicle only weighs 36 kg (79 lb) yet can hit a blistering top speed of up to 25 km/h (15 mph). Ok, so perhaps that’s not terribly fast, but at least it’s got an effective range of over 45 km (28 miles).
That range is sufficient to make this little four-wheeled electric scooter effective even off of the golf course. I could see this being a handy utility vehicle. Instead of a golf club bag, you could swap a shopping bag into its place and scoot around your local grocery store performing the weekly shopping run.
Or perhaps you just need to get even more creative. This may look like a one-person vehicle to the untrained eye. But the out-of-the-box thinkers among us might just be able to turn it into a family vehicle for dropping the kids off at school.
There’s even a version with an attached umbrella so your kid doesn’t get wet. I mean, they may serve as a mudguard from the front, but at least their hair will stay dry!
And if you’re still not sold, then wait until you see the price. While even a cheap golf cart will run you around US $9,000 these days, the four-wheeled golf scooter here is priced at a reasonable $999. But as my savvy Alibaba-post readers will know, you can often do even better when shopping in bulk. If you are prepared to take delivery of 100 of these blessed contraptions, you can drop the price down to a cool $850. I know, I know… How can you afford NOT to?!
Ok, joking aside, please don’t try and buy one of these things. I often intend to remind folks that this series is largely tongue-in-cheek and that buying any large purchase sight unseen from halfway around the world is fraught with peril. I’ve had some awesome successes doing this myself, but I’ve also had some dismal failures that left me out some serious cash. That’s why these Alibaba products should probably remain an amusing intellectual exercise, nothing more.
So, while it’s fun to enjoy imagining what it’d be like to cruise the links on a Chinese four-wheeled e-scooter, this is one that’s probably best left on the computer screen. But if you do ignore my warnings, as my readers often seem keen to do, definitely let me know when it’s time to open the box. I’d be fascinated to see it!
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