Category Archives: market trends

What’s Cooking On The STOV

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Highlighting some of the many applications for small, task-oriented vehicles

GEMs At San Diego International Airport

GEMs At San Diego International Airport

Airport Transport & Utility – As part of celebrating the upcoming Earth Day San Diego International Airport recently highlighted their use of electric powered LSVs and utility vehicles.?? Their fleet of fourteen vehicles include 10 GEMs and 4 Taylor-Dunn vehicles in two and four passenger configurations, as well as utility configurations.?? The vehicles are part of the airport’s overall “green” strategy.?? Officials estimate that the vehicles save them 80% in fuel costs compared to using gas-powered vehicles for the same work.?? Learn more:?? Examiner.com

Hoboken LSV Purchase Revisited

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Earlier in a What’s Cooking On The STOV post I had covered the city of Hoboken’s purchase of LSV utility vehicles for their parking department. The city manager behind the purchase has recently blogged about the process and the reasoning behind it. Some of the key factors influencing the decision to switch from pick-up trucks to LSVs included:

  • Limited use criteria: restricted operating area in terms of miles driven, flat terrain, low payload requirements, no emergency response requirements
  • High mileage pick-ups with increasing maintenance costs
  • High fuel costs for pick-ups driven by idling
  • Narrow LSVs don’t block traffic
  • LSVs have significantly lower fuel and maintenance costs

As an added bonus the vehicles attracted press coverage which highlighted the department’s cost effective and forward thinking purchase. Learn more: Ian Sac’s blog

Golf Car Manufacturers Targeting LSV Market

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A local newspaper story in Georgia, home state of the leading golf car manufacturers, recently ran a story about their move into the LSV market.?? The story focuses mainly on the leaders in the golf car market, Club Car and E-Z-Go. Club Car introduced their passenger version of the Villager 2+2 late last year and E-Z-Go will be introducing their LSV later this year.

Club Car was able to take advantage of market demand driven by federal tax credits, especially in Oklahoma.?? E-Z-Go chose not to rush the development schedule of their LSV to take advantage of the tax credit.?? Instead, they are looking to enter the market with a vehicle with distinctive features.?? One feature we have learned about for the vehicle is four wheel hydraulic brakes.
Not mentioned in the story is entry of smaller golf car manufacturers into LSV market such as Fairplay.

The move into the LSV market is driven by a number of factors:

  • Golf cars are already being sold into the gated community market where LSVs are also sold
  • There is growing market opportunity as an increasing number of LSVs are sold outside of gated communities
  • The decline in the golf course driven segment of the market is forcing golf car companies to look for new areas of growth

Learn more:?? Augusta Chronicle

Dealer News

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Arnell Auto Group A New GEM Dealer – Arnell Auto Group in Burns Harbor, IN recently became the only dealer for Global Electric Motorcars in Indiana.?? The GEM line includes six vehicle models that operate on a chargeable 72-volt battery and can seat between two and six passengers.?? David Arnell is the president of the Arnell Auto Group, which sells new and used vehicles, also sells Chevrolet, Chevrolet Commercial, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Ram brands. Learn more:?? NWItimes.com

North Shore Auto Group Provides Solar Charged Vehicles – North Shore Auto Group of Highland Park, IL has partnered with The Solar Electric Vehicle Company (SEVC) to provide solar-charged Cruise Car NEVs. The vehicles travel up to 60 miles on a single charge using a solar panel system that provides constant supplemental charging throughout the day.?? The line-up of vehicles includes 4 and 6 passenger NEVs and multi-passenger shuttles, security and utility NEVs as well as solar-canopied golf carts.?? Learn more:?? EVworld.com

5 Star Mini Trucks To Market Chinese Brand – 5 Star Mini Trucks of Yukon, OK recently announced an exclusive contract with Shandong Liangzi Power Co. Ltd. of China to market their trucks and set up dealerships around the U.S.?? The vehicles are street legal in Oklahoma except on highways and can travel 40 miles on a gallon of gasoline. Owner Rick Opitz said “...the partnership could also lead to an Oklahoma assembly plant or parts warehouse for the mini trucks.“?? Learn more:?? OKNews.com

News Briefs

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Strong UTV Sales In Australian Farming Segment – An Australian farming magazine reports about the increasing demand for UTVs and the entry of new manufacturers like Honda, Case IH and New Holland into the market.?? Learn more:?? FW.farmonline.com.au

Platinum Group Acquires Tiziani Golf Car of Minnesota – The Platinum Group, a private equity fund that focuses on underperforming companies or those in need of turnaround expertise, recently purchased the assets of Tiziani Golf Car of Minnesota.?? The company will be renamed Superior Golf Cars and will continue to be the exclusive distributor of Club Car vehicles in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin.?? Learn more:?? peHub.com

Phillips Develops Crosswalk System For Silent Vehicles – Phillips is developing an LED based crosswalk lighting system to warn pedestrians of approaching but silent vehicles such as electric buses, autos and scooters.???? The embedded LEDs react to approaching vehicles the same way traffic lights do by changing color from green to amber to red.
Learn more:?? Worldcarnews.com

Phillips Develops LED Crosswalk System

Phillips Develops LED Crosswalk System

Sedona, AZ May Replace Trolleys With NEVs

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A Citizen Review Committee in Sedona, AZ recently presented a plan to the city council to replace the existing trolley system with a fleet of NEVs. Faced with high operating costs and declining ridership the city is looking for ways to improve the transit system. The NEV proposal includes the purchase of eight to ten NEVs that would travel the same routes as the current trolley system, and also offer door-to-door service along the route. The city spent over a million dollars on trolleys for the system while the fleet of NEVs is expected to cost less than $200,000. While many residents and officials are optimistic about the proposal, there is a range of issues besides the capital costs that the city council is concerned about regarding the implementation and operations of an NEV fleet. The proposal will continue to be discussed in the coming months. Learn more: Sedona.biz

What’s Cooking On The STOV

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Highlighting some of the many applications for small, task-oriented vehicles

Specialized Agriculture Applications – Oregon based manufacturer Barefoot Motors is selling electric utility vehicles for use in orchards.

Karen Lewis with Washington State University Extension in Ephrata, Wash., said many orchard owners are shifting to a two-dimensional and three-dimensional row setup, enabling human or robotic hands to access the fruit by any type of technology. They are looking for smaller, electric utility vehicles to harvest or apply pesticides, she said.

The electric UTVs are also well suited for the frequent stop and start nature of the work. Learn more: Capitalpress.com

Advertising Based Transportation Service – A pair of Florida State University graduates have launched Green Operated Transit Carrying Humanity Around, or GOTCHA, a free, environmentally friendly transportation service. The company has a fleet of five GEMs to service the FSU campus and plan for similar fleets for the University of Florida and the University of Georgia. The company generates revenue by placing advertisers logos on the vehicles. Learn more: Tallahassee.com

GEMs for the Hoboken Parking Utillity

New GEMs for the Hoboken Parking Utillity

City Parking Department Application – Hoboken, NJ has taken delivery of two GEMs for use by the Hoboken Parking Utility. The vehicles will be used to put up signs, place bags over meters and install and remove boots. They replace pickup trucks which frequently needed maintenance. and their compact size are a good fit for the city’s tight streets. Learn more: NJ.com/hobokennow

Mobile Marketing Campaign – L’Oreal Paris is using two GEM vehicles as part of a mobile marketing campaign that will visit ten college campuses this spring. The promotion will…

…provide students with a range of brand engagements creating a motivating product trial platform while generating buzz. Utilizing a branded Airstream trailer and two battery-operated GEM cars, (Global Electric Motorcars) trained product specialists will invite students to use mobile face washing stations featuring Go 360 Clean, enjoy two-minute upper back massages and a professional makeup application.

L'Oreal Paris Promo Vehicle

L'Oreal Paris GEM promo vehicle

Learn more: Drugstorenews.com

GatorMoto Fills Large International Order

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GoatorMoto Utility Vehicles reports selling 50 Electro Transport Buddy 15 Passenger LE???s to the Al-Azzouni Group in Saudi Arabia.?? The electric powered shuttle vehicles were used in the recent Mecca Festival.

Learn more:?? Gatormotoutilityvehicles.com

Tomberlin Debuts Vehicles At GIS national Tradeshow

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Tomberlin debuted two electric vehicles at the GIS (Golf Industry Show) National Tradeshow held last month in San Diego.?? One vehicle was their E-Motion concept car designed for what the company describes as the “Electric Close-In Commuter Class”.?? Placing an emphasis on safety, the E-Motion borrows technology from the aircraft industry and includes an AmSafe Seatbelt Airbag.?? According to the press release

AmSafe Seatbelt Airbag inflates in less than 90 milliseconds and, unlike automotive airbags, safely deploys up and away from the occupant, making it a safe restraint for passengers of all ages.

Tomberlin management hopes the additional safety feature could lead to the establishment of a new class of vehicles with less restrictive regulations compared to highway speed combustion engine vehicles.?? In the past, Tomberlin has been a strong advocate for a Medium Speed Vehicle classification, which NHTSA has resisted establishing in large part due to safety concerns.

The other vehicle debuted was Tomberlin’s VANISH, an electric utility vehicle with full 4 x 4 shift on the fly function targeted for hunting and other utility vehicle market segments.?? Additional features include independent rear suspension and 4 wheel hydraulic disc breaks.?? Following a trend in the market, the utility vehicle is also a street legal LSV with 3 point seat belts and safety leg restraints, lights, signals, full brush bars and padded headrests.?? – Marc Cesare
Learn more:?? Tomberlin.net

Electric Vehicle Charging Station Data

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The US Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicle Data Center provides a searchable database for locating fueling stations for various types of alternative fuels, including electric vehicles. Currently the database lists 521 electric vehicle charging stations. Over 80% are located in California, which has 416 stations. The only other states that are in double digits are Oregon with 26 and Texas with 10. Arizona and Illinois are next with 8 each. Twenty-four states, or just under half, have at least one recharging station. Learn more:?? AFDC.energy.gov