6 | www.RadRydz.com Drive anywhere in neighborhoods around East Cooper and you are likely to see families cruising around in golf carts. While most of these leisure vehicles used to be powered by gas, there has been a shift toward electric. According to Yahoo Finance, the U.S. electric golf cart market is projected to grow from $529.4 million in 2024 to $886.7 million by 2033. Here in the Lowcountry specifically, a variety of factors have contributed to the spike in electric sales. In late 2022, Andrea Leary, who along with her husband Chad Shores founded Rad Rydz in 2018, said they began to see the market demand shift from gas-powered carts to the battery-powered LSVs (low-speed vehicles). They noticed the trend developing even before then but waited until they could find the right vehicle to carry. “We kind of saw it coming for a while,” said Leary. “But we’re very particular about the brands that we sell. So we looked for probably four years to find a brand that we trusted, that we felt comfortable putting our name on it. We wanted to make sure it was something that had a lasting reputation, that we could get parts for.” One aspect of why people transitioned to LSVs had to do with a state regulation. Under South Carolina law, you are prohibited from driving golf carts at night, but you can operate LSVs anytime. “Well, I think it (the shift to LSVs) really happened because more people had golf carts, so they were using them more, and then they realized they couldn’t drive them at night if it was a golf cart, so then they wanted a low-speed vehicle so they could drive it at night,” mused Leary. “It fit their needs.” The other major industry shift they’ve witnessed is with lithium batteries. “We do a ton of lithium conversions where people have lead acid batteries, and they put the lithium in there. And that’s because lead acid will last about four years and a lithium battery will last 10-plus years – with no maintenance on it,” explained Leary. CHARGING THE FUTURE: GROWTH OF ELECTRIC GOLF CART MARKET By Colin McCandless
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