Here are some of the advantages of an electric powered golf cart. The three main things to thing about when buying an electric
some advantages electric powered golf cart or utility cart are:
Safety and Convenience
The first advantage is that most electric golf and utility carts have, and all benefit to some extent from having a battery (or several)
on board. Batteries store electrical energy to be used when the go pedal is pushed.
Efficiency
The second advantage, fundamental to all electric vehicles, relates to the fact that electric motors are able to produce their
full, rated power at any speed. The speed of any motor is generally measured in how many times it turns, or revolves, during a
minute’s time, and thus revolutions per minute or RPM’s. Conventional gasoline-powered engines have very little power at low RPM’s.
Even a high-powered engine doesn’t really start generating any serious power until it is up in the 1,500 or higher RPM range. The
problem is, however, that a golf cart needs the most amount of power when it is going the slowest, as when it is starting up from a dead
stop. To make up for this inherent lack of high power at low RPM’s conventional gasoline-powered carts use transmissions which allow
the engine to run at a fairly high speed even while the wheels are turning at fairly low speeds.Recall now what we said about electric
motors being able to produce their full, rated power at any speed and you can appreciate the second key advantage to electric carts: They
actually need no transmissions to put their full power to work even at low speeds and, if they do use one, they will do so far more
efficiently than any gasoline powered engine can.
Economy
A third common feature among electric vehicles is called “regenerative braking” which is really just a fancy way of saying
"you get a little back of what you put in”. Here’s how it works: An electric motor and an electric generator are essentially the
same device. When electrical current is feed into a device like this it acts as a motor and creates mechanical power. When mechanical
power is feed into the device it acts a generator and creates electrical power.If an electric motor is connected to the wheels,
sending electrical power to the motor turns the wheels. However, when the wheels are turning on their own (as when coasting to
a stop or going downhill) the wheels are in effect sending mechanical power back into the motor. The motor, by receiving mechanical
power, now acts as a generator; sending electrical current back up into the batteries where it can be stored for future use. This
“secondary” source of electrical power is captured and stored, and supplements any power otherwise generated by the primary
power generation system. By way of contrast, conventional carts use conventional brakes that merely grab the wheels and keep them
from turning freely. This “drag” on the wheels produces friction, which in turn produces heat. Yes, you slow down or stop as desired,
but all the energy produced in slowing the golf cart’s forward movement is lost to the atmosphere as heat.Thus by means of “regenerative
braking” an electric golf cart (even a battery-powered cart with no “primary” on-board power generation source) can reclaim part of its
“kinetic” (moving) energy when coming to a stop. Note that we said “part” and not “all”. Despite theoretical arguments to the contrary,
friction prevents electrical vehicles or anything else from reclaiming all of the energy it has used. Even so, the savings are very worthwhile.
