There’s nothing quite like a golf cart to bring out the kid in every driver. A combination of car-like operation, go kart-like handling and video game-like repercussions make them a joy to ride. But with the typical 2+2 seat layout, you’re normally limiting to enjoying the experience with only three friends. For anyone who wants to bring the whole family, class or friend circle along though, this 12-seater stretch limousine golf cart will likely better fit the bill. It certainly fits what I’m looking for in this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week.
I found this lovely little number while scrolling through the Alibaba vendor Henan Robeta’s page this week.
It’s mostly a normal golf cart, save for the fact that you can fit 10 adults properly seated with another two in the puke seats, or probably 20+ adults improperly seated.
Technically, that’s going to exceed to the meager weight limit of 700 kg (1,543 lb). But then again, so will just 12 adults seeing as that works out to 58 kg (128 lb) per person.
But let’s put such small details aside for a moment and just enjoy all that this awesome vehicle has to offer.
It may only offer a top speed of 30 km/h (18 mph), but that’s pretty much par for the course on a golf cart.
With a giant 48V 190Ah battery, this thing loads up more battery than many electric motorcycles and hybrid electric cars with nearly 10 kWh of capacity. They claim it is good for 70 km (43.5 miles) of range, which sounds like more than any golf cart should ever truly need. And there’s enough canopy space on top to add around six square miles of cheap solar panels to give this buggy nearly infinite range.
That battery pack may just be an old fashioned lead acid monstrosity made of eight 6V bricks, but that doesn’t surprise me. We aren’t looking at the peak of automative tech here. Instead, we’re looking at a golf cart so disproportioned that you’d probably have to give out seat assignments based on weight class.
The party cart here gets its power from a single 5.5 kW (7.4 horsepower) electric motor on the rear axle. That may be be double the power of most golf carts, but that ratio doesn’t seem to be keeping up with the seat mitosis going on here. I have to wonder what the 0-15 mph time of this cart is when fully laden with geriatric golfers or the entire groundskeeping team for South Florida.
In a particularly comical turn, they appear to have tried to reassure potential customers about the vehicles’ short stopping distance, but instead listed it as “breaking: <4 meters”. That really draws into question the wisdom of their 1 year warranty, now doesn’t it?
Assuming it doesn’t break down in the first 13 feet, it honestly looks like a pretty fun ride. The turning radius likely leaves something to be desired, but just imagine taking this to a community where golf carts are allowed to ride on the roads. You could run a shuttle service for half of Key Biscayne on this bad boy.
Or roll up to the ritziest of country clubs in this thing. If a limousine is your normal mode of transportation, why should you suffer the indignity of having to use a normal, non-limo golf cart. The horror!
Now I know what you’re thinking: “Surely I could never afford a stretch limousine golf cart, I’m just a lowly commoner, forced to walk the golf course like a peasant without the assistance of a driver that remains a good 10 feet in front of me at all times, always reflecting on the mediocrity of my existence and my lack of ability to afford the finer things in life due to my sheer dearth of aspirations and my annoying penchant for communicating in run-on sentences.” But fret not, because this weird creation is actually surprisingly affordable.
It starts at a reasonable $5,300, but drops to a remarkably practical price of $4,800 if you buy one hundred units. Of course it looks long enough to have trouble closing the shipping container doors on just one of these, so you’re probably looking at a shipping cost of 5x the vehicle price based on current ocean shipping rates, but let’s cross that bridge when we get there.
For now, I’m too jazzed about the prospect of rolling up to the local bingo night like the most big shot, deep-pocketed blue hair this side of West Palm Beach.
Bring my cart around, Jeeves!
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