INSIDE
By Stephen Metzger
Managing Director
Small Vehicle Resource, LLC
[email protected]
www.smallvehicleresource.com
THE GATED
COMMUNITY
The Gates are Widening—the Evolution
in Geography and Vehicle Types
W
hat the title of this month’s article
means is established gated commu-
nities, such as The Villages in Flori-
da, are, in fact, growing, and secondly, that
the small vehicles used in these communities
are becoming less recognizable as golf cars
and much more understood as individual-
ized, personal transportation vehicles.
These two changes are certainly well-recog-
nized, but what is not so well appreciated
at this point is the fact these trends are a
component of a much broader evolutionary
process toward new transportation systems,
which will involve new types of small vehi-
cles, serving the needs of urban mobility
and personal mobility.
Urban mobility: Is it relevant to the gat-
ed community?
You may be saying to yourself, “What do we,
in our gated community—which we pur-
posely chose to get away from the mayhem
and dysfunction of cities and suburbs—have
to do with urban and personal mobili-
ty?” Good question. (As an aside, being a
commuter on occasion into New York City,
I often ask myself, “How do you spell dys-
function?” And the spelling I come up with is
“N-e-w Y-o-r-k”.)
The answer to your question is this: New
technologies and new products constant-
ly create and find new markets. Do you
question the need for your cell phone now,
even though, perhaps, a decade or so ago
you might have said to yourself, “What do
I need a cell phone for? Landlines are just
20
WWW.GOLFCAROPTIONS.COM
fine for me.” Any number of products now in common use,
especially in the field of electronics, were, at their inception
simply replacing products serving the same basic functions.
These new products were easier to use, allowed more op-
tions, and were faster and otherwise more efficient—and
for the greater benefits offered, less costly.
Current signs and benefits of the brave new world of
urban and personal mobility
Significant benchmarks of the coming urban and personal
mobility transformation and new product lines would be,
but are not limited to, the following:
• Lithium batteries, providing maintenance-free long life,
potentially eliminating range anxiety;
• Faster charging allowed by lithium and significantly
improving opportunity charging;
• Mobility as a service (MaaS), an individualized transportation
service, supplanting vehicle ownership;
• Permanent magnet electric motors for greater power and
greater efficiency;
• Improved suspensions;
• More automotive features, particularly for the interior.
These items have added
over time to product lines
and models, with lithium
power being, perhaps the
most important factor.
The popular Club Car
Onward, pictured here, is
due to follow the Tempo
line of fleet vehicles and
transporters with lithium
batteries. (The announce-
ment is expected shortly.)
Onward 2-passenger,
coming with lithium