Garia To Reveal Limited Edition Golf Car In Monaco

Garia Soleil de Minuit

Garia Limited Edition Soleil de Minuit Luxury Golf Car

Emphasizing their positioning as a luxurious and high quality golf car manufacturer, Garia is revealing their Limited Edition Soleil de Minuit at  the luxury show Top Marques Monaco in April.  Billed as the “…most expensive and luxurious golf car ever made”, the Soleil de Minuit costs $52,000 and features…

…carbon roof, one-of custom paint tailored to enhance all design features on The Garia, two-colored hand-stitched luxury seats, alcantara roof lining and numerous hand-made details to create a truly unique luxury golf car.

The base price for a Garia starts at $17,499 / €13,999 (excl. delivery and taxes). Luxury upgrades includes a built-in refrigerator and an exclusive personalization program where you can choose to have The Garia painted in your favorite color or matched to your other cars.

Built to the highest standards of the automotive industry The Garia features a double wishbone front suspension similar to those found in sports cars and inspired by Formula 1 cars. The drive train is built by an Italian company that also produces Ducati gearboxes, and the aluminum profiles in the frame are made by the same company that supplies aluminum profiles to Aston Martin, Jaguar and Volvo.

Learn more:  www.garia.dk/limited-edition

News Briefs

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 WisconsinLearn 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

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

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

Specialized Agriculture ApplicationsOregon 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

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

ZENN Stops Vehicle Production

As anticipated ZENN has stopped producing vehicles and will instead focus on developing electrical vehicle drivetrains based on EEStor’s technology. ZENN has the exclusive rights to use the EEStor technology in vehicles with a curb weight of up to 3000 pounds. There has been little news of late on the progress of EEstor’s ultracapacitor based power systems. – Marc Cesare Learn more: Treehugger.com

California Clean Vehicle Rebate Project Update

The list of eligible vehicles for California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project are now available and includes LSVs from GEM and Miles Automotive.  Five GEM models for model years 2009 and 2010 are eligible for rebates ranging from $1,000 to $1,350 depending on the model.  The two Miles vehicles (model years 2009/2010) are eligible for $1,500 rebates.  See the complete list. – Marc Cesare

Original posting about the project.

Tomberlin Debuts Vehicles At GIS national Tradeshow

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

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

GatorMoto Offers Back Up Camera On Vehicles

GatorMoto now offers a back up camera option for all their electric vehicles.

These systems can either be hard-wired or wireless, depending on your requirements.  They feature a 7″ TFT-LCD monitor that can also be used for DVD/VCD/TV/GPS, a multi-function remote control and a camera with infrared night vision capabilities up to 10-15 meters.

The equipment is waterproof, damp-proof, anti-fogging, quake-proof, high voltage surge proof, and high temperature resistant.  They are suitable for all weather conditions.

The hard-wire version costs $359 and the wireless version $459.  The company promotes the camera as a safety option for parking shuttles, touring vehicles and delivery vehicles.

Learn more:  Gatormotoutilityvehicles.com