If you were born in this century (as my kids say to me with annoying smugness), you’d be shocked at the lack of product options available at car dealerships of fifty years ago. Many people in their twenties automatically assume that around half of the cars in any brand’s lineup will be some kind of tall crossover with all-wheel-drive as an option, if not standard.
That wasn’t always the case. In 1975, the Big Three could offer you only rear-wheel-drive sedans and wagons, or big pickup-truck-based four-wheelers; only Subaru could have given you a tiny station wagon that spun both axles, but it was full-time four-wheel drive.
In their desperation for more market share, struggling American Motors created the first vehicle that might be considered an all-wheel-drive crossover with the 1980 Eagle. Poor AMC wouldn’t live to see the segment explode two decades later, but it’s proof that companies in peril often develop some of the most innovative solutions.
I’ve read that much of the powersports industry is currently struggling. Whether it’s due to higher interest rates or the fact that the market got saturated with post-COVID “revenge” spending over the last five years, larger manufacturers of UTVs are reporting sales drops of anywhere from five to as much as twenty-five percent. Naturally, sales are a cyclical thing and can rebound as quickly as they fall, but it seems clear to me that some AMC-style innovation might need to come into play to create a new kind of “crossover” vehicle to meet the changing market.
Or Drive A Ride-On Mower, George Jones-Style
You might think that Jason is a strange person for several reasons, including his choice of a tiny enclosed Chinese electric cart as a preferred means of daily transportation in a small American town instead of a “normal” car. Well, don’t look now but Torch might be on the cutting edge of a trend.
There are more and more cities, neighborhoods, retirement centers, and resorts opening each year that allow golf carts or slightly more substantial compact (typically electric) vehicles to legally be used on the streets, either coexisting with cars or driving on roads where full-sized automobiles are not allowed.
Places for older, retired residents were once only to be found in Florida or Arizona but now they’re appearing even in climates that get real weather – Dale Webb’s Sun City Huntley is a community in a Chicago suburb complete with snow and ice and all that the Windy City has to offer. You’ll see more of these since the population is growing older every day; a number of the Autopian staff members could now or very soon qualify to move into one of these “age 55+” communities, but we’re absolutely not going to fucking talk about that. Congested cities, as well as ski and mountain towns, will soon likely follow suit with going green and small electric.
In the segment of vehicles between golf carts and small street-legal cars, the options for buyers are surprisingly close to what buyers of 1975 automobiles faced. On one end are UTVs: Utility Task Vehicles or Utility Terrain Vehicles (not Urinary Tract Vehicles). At the other side of the spectrum are LSEVs, or Low Speed Electric Vehicles (the kind you might see in retirement communities or resorts, or in Jason’s town when the Changli is rolling around.
In the middle of these extremes is, well, nothing. Let’s consider why that lack of in-between could be a problem.
UTVs or Side-by-Sides
Polaris is one of the biggest makers of UTVs such as the Polaris Ranger, which is sometimes known as a “side by side” (since it carries at least two passengers next to each other, unlike typical single-seat ATVs). Even though sales might not be spectacular now, there’s still research that claims that he global power sports market size will rebound to grow at a compounded rate of 6.0% from 2024 to 2030.
The Good: These are tough, versatile things that can carry up to six passengers. There’s a wide range of them with the top of the line “full size” versions offering up to 110 horsepower, or more than a few cars on Jason’s fleet combined. It’s obvious that this thing means business, and it’s capable of towing up to 3500 pounds if the specs are correct.
Polaris’s smallest offering is the “mid-sized” Ranger 570, which still provides a respectable 44 horsepower from its single-cylinder engine, the ability tow up to 1500 pounds, and 11 inches of ground clearance with all-wheel-drive. These start at around $24,000 but can escalate with options.
The Bad: If you aren’t going to pull out tree stumps at your farm, tow a trailer of logs, or ford deep waters, these Rangers might be far too much vehicle than you’ll need for getting about in your neighborhood. It’s not like Shady Acres Retirement Village would allow them anyway. They’re also rather agricultural in the appointments they offer and the way they drive.
Last spring break, we stayed at a place in Mexico that had two-seater 1000cc Rangers for guests to use on the rutted local cobblestoned streets that were unsuited for golf carts. This thing was obviously quite capable and might have been a blast to run in the right situation, but for around-town use it was way too loud and harsh, to the point that my wife preferred to just walk. Despite the alleged power steering, the thing was not particularly pleasant to drive for the tasks at hand. The decent-sized pickup-style bed would be great for making your gravel driveway but was far bigger than what local trips required.
The verdict: Ultimately, UTVs are great for the cattle ranch but not necessarily the retirement ranch. (By the way, Polaris offers an electric Ranger now with a surprising 110 horsepower on tap, but it’s only available as a full-sized two-door model with a price approaching $40,000).
LSEVs
At the other end of the market from UTVs are funky-looking things called Neighborhood Electric Vehicles; they’re also referred to as LSEV, or Low Speed Electric Vehicles. In America, there are plenty of locales that allow for things that have a maximum speed of 25 to 35 miles per hour. The number of places where you can use such vehicles is also growing, and the market is expected to grow from $7.4 billion in 2023 to $10.9 billion in 2028 at a rate of 7.89 %; a bigger growth rate than the side-by-side market. GEM Vehicles is one of the largest American players.
LSEVs are not golf carts, something that the GEM website and those of their LSEV competitors mention many times over. That’s because LSEVs have things like seat belts, lights, horns, and other safety equipment, as well as optional weather protection windshields and doors. Also, my guess is GEM needs to get “golf cart” out of your head before you look at the price, since the four-seat e4 starts at $17,500 and quickly passes $30,000 when you add options like the enclosed cabin.
The Good: They’re obviously quiet and seemingly comfortable machines that make the most of the electric motor driving the rear wheels with a mere seven horsepower. Light and easy to drive, if you’re in a place where it’s sunny and warm ninety-eight percent of the time, you’d probably be quite content with a GEM e4 as long as you stay on the pavement and don’t carry much.
The Bad: First of all, the styling on these things is certainly “cute”, but it might be a bit too much of a goofy-looking little thing for some buyers. Worse than that, it really does have an appearance that welcomes the golf cart comparisons that GEM so obviously doesn’t want you to make.
Behind the seats, the GEM has a short platform that’s rather useless for cargo unless you add one of their rather half-assed looking solutions including a skinny pickup-bed thing (“S-Bed with sides”), a rather Costco Rubbermaid-looking bin (“Trunkback”) or thing the call a “S box” that looks like a pathetic home-built food vendor add-on. Even then, space for large items just isn’t there.
Worst of all, in places like Sun City Huntley with real weather, your GEM will realistically need to be covered and stored for at least four to five months a year. Snow? Even with the optional enclosed cabin you’ll likely need to keep your $30,000 GEM parked. A sandy or rocky beach? Trails that are covered in rocks and ruts? I wouldn’t want to try that with the GEM. Even if the low ground clearance isn’t a problem there likely isn’t enough power to get you out of a slippery situation.
The verdict: If something walks like a golf cart, talks like a golf cart, and you have to keep telling people that your product is not a golf cart, then you might have a problem.
Based on my unmatched skills gained from one semester thirty years ago in a college marketing class, let’s do a quick summary of these two kinds of vehicles:
Now we know what our Crossover Cart has to bridge between, it’s time to get to work on the solution.
When A UTV And An LSEV Love Each Other Very Much..
Maybe Polaris could be the one to champion a new in-between type of product. Oddly enough, Polaris owned GEM vehicles up until 2021; why they sold the business is not clear to me, but it would seem that they’re uniquely qualified to make this new kind of low-speed electric vehicle crossover, and their name would carry Jeep-like swagger to it.
Styling of what we’ll call the Polaris Sherpa series will follow the same pattern as automobile crossovers: a combination of rugged off-road machines with the cleaner forms of street cars. The body will sit higher than a GEM without being as far off the ground as a Ranger; grey plastic rocker trims and sharp breakover angles front and rear create the look of something off-road capable. A grey hood and “roll bar” contrast the color-painted sheet metal.
The cargo area is longer than the GEM but still shorter than the Ranger; optionally you could fold or remove the rear seats and even remove the rear window to carry larger objects in a way neither the UTV or LSEVs currently do.
An optional, integrated trunk lid could offer weather protection and security for your cargo. Neither the Ranger or GEM provide a front trunk; the raised nose of the Sherpa would provide a second secure storage space.
Four side doors feature frameless crank-roll-down windows so that the Sherpa can offer another trick not seen before: you can remove roof panels over each seat and the rear window glass to give a convertible feel that current UTV and LSEV choices do not, yet still a rigid-roofed cabin for foul weather (both the Polaris and GEM products have fixed roofs with heavily framed windows so you’ll never get a convertible feel if you want it). Plus, with a frunk there’s a place to put the roof panels.
A GEM gets by on the seven horsepower that it has; it could use a few more but we don’t need anything close to the 44 horse powerplant of the based Rangers (much less the 110HP options). Powering the Sherpa would be two 12-15 horsepower electric motors, one each for the front and rear to give all-wheel-drive. It’s possible that we could allow the front drive motor to uncouple for range-extending two-wheel drive only (just like the Eagle did and current crossovers don’t let you do). A total of 25 to 30 horsepower doesn’t seem like much, but it’s more than ample power to go through snow and grab your chairs and umbrella off of the beach, especially with the taller ground clearance it would offer.
Obviously, we could offer more powerful motor options, but if you really need a serious off-roader then Polaris would likely just want to sell you a gas or electric small Ranger instead, right?
The Inside Job
On the GEM, the dashboard is rather minimalistic, with the upper surface dedicated to much useful storage space (but no glove box-like space below). A speedometer sits rather uselessly low and dead center above the optional radio.
By comparison, the Polaris Ranger is rather basic and even more industrial looking, though admittedly both this and GEM are just a step above a golf cart in regards to the overall presentation (the bigger Rangers have center screens and more controls).
In the Sherpa, the dashboard is equally simple, with the optional entertainment system or screen being just a standard double DIN opening that you can use as a storage bin or install any damn thing you’d like (and be able to upgrade five years from now per Jason’s new rules).
I’d like to move essentially all the controls to the steering wheel area, which could possibly all tilt adjust like on a Porsche 928.
The gauge pod has “transmission” buttons on one side and lights on the other, with accessory spots below. Flippers control wipers and turn signals. Notice also that the controls are BIG; you don’t want to specifically say that a product is designed for older people but if you make it easier for them to operate, they will notice and appreciate it.
The Sherpa’s option list would be expansive, either from Polaris or the aftermarket with things like electric heating and air conditioning (maybe heated seats instead?) as well as plug-n-play boxes that attach to the doors containing motors for the windows and solenoids to active the locks. What else could you ask for?
Could A Polaris “Eagle” Work?
A Crossover Low Speed Electric Vehicle (CLSEV) seems like an odd concoction; it might be too far ahead of the market. Remember, in 1980 International Harvester dropped the Scout because of a limited market, and some people that same year mocked the new AMC Eagle by calling it “the Hornet on stilts”. Today many buyers demand this kind of all-weather useability without needing to add on snow tires (remember when everyone did that?) and wagon-style carrying capability.
As this vehicle-one-notch-below-cars category starts to grow, we’ll see people in Aspen ski resorts and Wisconsin retirement communities who don’t want to allow a Polaris Ranger but a GEM won’t work either. They’ll want a little bit of Ranger-like capability and “tough” UTV look and cred but the comfort, roadability and economy of the GEM. It’s almost like they want a tiny, low-speed G-Wagen; there’s actually a place that makes Mercedes SUV-looking carts now:
Yeah, that looks like an adult Power Wheel. We need something with that sentiment but isn’t a joke. This Polaris Sherpa concept might not be it, but mark my words: whoever makes the viable Low Speed Crossover a reality will have the last laugh.
The issue with the adoption of smaller vehicles like the ones fantasized about here is not safety regulations. It is the combination of high urban speed limits and massive average vehicle size. Together, it means that any small vehicle in this country is a death wish. Especially with urban planning, which seems to think transportation capacity is more important than liveability.
Driving an old car or something so small that it wouldn’t count as a speed bump for a full-size truck or EV is acceptable for some but will never be purchased as a daily driver by anyone with kids or family members they actually like.
When the weather is decent, I put more miles on my E-bike than my cars. I use it for grocery shopping, going out with friends, getting to local meetings, and just about everything else most people do by hopping into their compact CUV. But the only thing that makes that possible is that I live in an area with much better than average cycling infrastructure. Even then, finding routes to various places that don’t involve time on high-speed roads full of texting drivers can be a bit of a chore.
The only way to make smaller vehicles viable is to realize that the belief that urban and neighborhood streets are there primarily for cars has always been a dangerous delusion. That the prioritization of speed of getting through a place was more important than the place itself was completely misguided and destructive. So, in other words, it will never happen in the U.S. If you want sanity at this point, the only hope is to change your passport.
A few years ago, I considered purchasing an Arcimoto FUV (there’s an unfortunate moniker) as they were just coming out. Electric, 100+ mile (city) range, 70mph top end, tandem 2-seat, fully enclosed cabin (optional), cargo version available. The company even claimed decent performance in snow. Most states classified it as a motorcycle, though it was three-wheeled and front drive. I even went so far as to attend a riding event on a west coast trip. It was a blast and I could see myself doing all of my daily/local commuting in one, no problem. Then my Volvo got T-boned by a drunk-driven Suburban one evening. I not only walked away unscathed, I drove away (not unscathed, but not incapacitated, either.) Could the Arcimoto do that? Doubtful. Don’t get me wrong, the Arcimoto was fun as hell, but fun isn’t really what I’m on the road to accomplish, even though I persist in buying cars with fun in mind. As long as traffic consists of a mix of vehicles combining high speed with high mass, I can’t see depending upon a small and slow gas or electric vehicle to get around. In special communities sure, or when I get my own private island, you bet. Too many close calls and one harrowing high side adventure already caused me to give up my motorcycle for commuting, and I loved riding, but not in today’s road environment and not when there are idiots sleep-driving their Teslas. On top of that, the price of the Arcimoto ballooned from it original target of $12k to over $20k. And I’m not certain they’re even still in business all of which brings into question the factor of economic viability of these niche vehicles. Hell, full-size EVs are barely scratching the surface, never mind counting on small vehicles to be anything but small market toys. Do I wish it were different? Yes, I do, but I’m not counting on it in my lifetime, which I’m hoping has been extended by no longer riding a motorcycle and not indulging in LSEV or UTV rides. Still open to Kei cars, though. Man’s got to dream.
Congratulations, you designed an electric kei. 🙂
We just brought our kei truck from the farm back to town, and I came here to say this.
Mr. Kei Goes to Town?
Car culture is being strangled by the regulations needed to make high-speed, highway-capable vehicles safe-ish.
A less regulated vehicle industry making lower-speed vehicles would support more small companies and customizers.
We can rejuvenate car culture by prioritizing low-speed NHEVs and autocycles with simple safety requirements. The cars wouldn’t be fast, but they would be a lot cooler.
If only there were someone who could get rid of all of those pesky government regulators …
Bishop have you ever actually been in one of these things? They’re loud, they’re bouncy, they’re creaky, and they have the turning circle of a Terex dump truck. The reason why the Mahindra Roxor saw an explosion in sales is because these things are so bad. The police would be handing out noise complaints constantly from the unbaffled unmuffled exhaust, and the drivers would constantly be scraping against street parked cars because they can’t make the turn without hopping the curb.
If you look at the cost of the damn things it’s hard to argue they should replace any road going vehicle.
As other commenters have stated you’re better off getting a street legal car.
Don’t get me wrong, I love small cars, and small 4x4s, but UTVs in general are shit, I’d get 5 mint Kei Trucks for the cost of one UTV pickup.
Yes, we need Kei cars and trucks in the USA.
We have them.
I never understood why people would want to spend as much as a car (and a decent one at that) for a golf cart or LSV. Granted, my area is far too rainy for the open chassis carts.
Same goes for UTVs. Around here, UTVs are limited to the same OHV trails as full-size vehicles, so why pay $40k for a UTV when you can get a Jeep for $10k and you don’t need to trailer it to the trail?
Same goes for UTVs on private ranches. You can get a decent farm truck that will haul way more than a UTV for actual farm use. AWD minivans like the old GMC Safari are actually pretty popular farm vehicles in my area and are used to haul everything from people, to animals, feed, parts, fertilizer, etc.
Stop with the $10k jeep myth, this isn’t 2019 anymore.
I’m utterly in agreeance with everything here, and have been advocating for mass legalization and adoption of kei-ish vehicles for city use for as long as I’ve been a gearhead. But I believe the US has to fall economically very far for potentially decades before we are willing to accept these solutions.
Here in the US, and broadly the 1st world/westernized world (but especially the US), we buy cars not for utility and economics but for vanity and aspiration. People have become accustomed to seeing small cars and “not quite cars” as being less-than and beneath what they deserve. It all packs into the same bag as the idea of the temporarily embarrassed millionaire mindset.
We have in fact ossified laws and bureaucracy around the concept of the full-fledged highway-capable private automobile, any “less than” is viewed with suspicion and disdain even just on a bureaucratic basis, forget emotional. My view is the concept of our State has to be broken pretty far down before people will change their minds.
I think the same general trends have been observed in almost every post-war or post-liberalization economy, such as China. When I was younger and visited the relatives, cars in Beijing were still small kei-sized vans and VW knockoffs and other shitboxes. The same is true of Southeast Asia and parts of Africa today considered part of the developing economies (in fact, if I wanted to waste the government’s time, I’d try to import a still-produced 3rd generation Mitsubishi Delica from the Philippines or Taiwan and try to push the case that it’s Substantially Similar to the 1989 USDM van). Today all the cars in China I swear are better than anything around my block here.
So yeah… I 100% back the concept of smaller, low-speed, city-friendly get-around machines. But I think we Americans would rather go bankrupt feeding and maintaining our 3-row SUVs and then crash out and use horse and buggy again before that.
We need more golf cart based communities.
This seems like we are just making our own version of kei vehicles, which I’m totally here for.
I am currently searching for a new house with a little bit of land, so naturally I spend a good bit of time daydreaming about what I want to do on that land. I like the idea of having a small vehicle to do things like haul landscape supplies and plow the driveway, this has me casually browsing listings for kei trucks, I’m also considering a skid steer but that seems like it would be less practical.
Riding lawnmower might do, as add-ons exist. Locking rear diff is one i used lots as mowing offroad was a thing. Fast was avalible too on a different model for higher speed needs.
You are probably correct, but that’s just less fun.
Smart forty two, BMW i3, etc…
We tried this. One of the cities in California (I think Los Angeles) just had a massive fire sale of the BMW i3 fleet. There just isn’t a demand for tiny cars in the US.
Golf carts aren’t good for offroading? Teenaged me and friends beg to differ. The best round of “golfing” for us involved other people asking if we were making a mountain dew commercial, while high centered on top of a large pile of dirt without a single tire touching the ground, or having the course marshal taking our carts away because some old guy reported us jumping them over dirt berms. I’m not sure about durability, but those things were super fun offroad
What’s a low-mileage i-MIEV run these days?
Yeah, nobody’s making new cars that sell for less than $20,000, but how much less than that would a Polaris Sherpa really be? Especially since comparatively limited production runs would contribute to higher fixed costs per unit than those for cars with broader appeal and more capabilities. A Versa may seem like a crapcan, but it can do a lot more than any one of these can manage.
And that’s the thing. For a relatively small number of prosperous retirees who can afford a second car limited to running around a specific, controlled community, it could work. It’s more fun at low speeds and has less environmental impact than even a new Versa in perfect smog-spec form.
But for the rest of us, not so much. I don’t live in that kind of community, but I do now meet the age requirements for one (thanks for reminding me of that), and an LSV (legal here) would have easily met my range and speed requirements for commuting when I had a job. But I couldn’t really justify one when for more or less the same money I could pick up that Versa or a not too heavily used Bolt. And, like a number of people in my generation, my retirement is unlikely to be as relaxed and prosperous as the ones of the people packing into North America’s Sun Cities. (Not that I’d want to play there any more than I would have the other one forty years ago, but it would be nice to have had the choice, or at least the prospect of dining on the good cat food.)
Yup. There’s no way something like this sells for less than the price of a compact hatchback or crossover. Anyone who doesn’t believe that should go look up prices of fancy UTVs and golf carts.
Cat food is over rated. Ol Roy in the can makes a killer meatloaf, especially with fish food sprinkled on the top before you microwave it…
Good to know for when I fix the microwave.
This is a cool concept, but at a certain point… If you’re too old and feeble to drive a real car, maybe you’re better off in a Wheel Trans with an able-bodied driver who can assist you. Plenty of ‘real’ vehicles that occupy a similar footprint and price point already exist, never mind the used market.
Ultimately these segments are mostly a way to sell machinery that circumvents some sort of legal requirement- A senior who has lost their licence, a person with a DUI, etc. Or in the case of the golf carts at trailer parks, a vehicle to drink in.
Isn’t this just a nice UTV? Isn’t that market going in that direction already, for where those vehicles are appropriate?
This whole thing smacks of ‘your brain on car’ and ignores (e) bicycles, transit and other conveyances that might provide better mobility outcomes in an urban environment.
You’re not my supervisor!! 😛
But I am. Get back to work!
I’ve been saying this for a while now! Why do we need to build 5000 pound EVs to run around a city? Just make a smaller/slower/less powerful class of vehicle with a different set of regulations, much like the Japanese kei car. This makes it easier to make viable EVs that accommodate a large use case without needing to adhere to the safety regulations of a car that goes 120mph.
So everything needs to be a 1983 subaru wagon? Ok.
Same 4×140 bolt pattern Too.
Yes. Everything. With a digital dash. Or a 1980 model with a cyclops light.
With less rust, please.
Rust proof them and throw some upgraded halogen bulbs and reflectors behind the old standard 6.5″ headlights and that will work for me. I want a hardtop coupe, though.
Coupes are made of ugly, might I suggest a hatchback if you want a 2dr.
The hatchback is the absolute worst of the body styles and the only one I wouldn’t drive. Then Subaru made those abominations after they unfortunately changed the other bodystyles to the shitty EA82 so the hatchbacks were on the roads for longer, taunting me as I unsuccessfully searched for a suitable replacement for my rusted and partially tree-crushed sedan. I think every one of them was driven by a woman over 80 years old or maybe there was only one, passed around the old age home like Stygian witch’s eye.
One rule – sound limits. SxS and UTV aren’t even on the same page as cars for noise. They are loud as hell
I think they’ll make more electric models, but for now they just have one Polaris EV that I saw which is like the size of the one Jason borrowed. And it’s $40,000.
Gas is fine, so long as they have to meet the same sounds regulations as cars. They are all over Utah and its annoying.
They rent them here to tourists to drive in the Great Smoky Mountains…their droning noise carries quite deep into the woods, ruining the peaceful trails. I believer loud pipe Harleys are less noisy.
Just what I always wanted: a golf cart that has to be insured.
So in other words: A stretched Citroen Ami.
Or if you MUST go off-road: A stretched Vanderhall Brawley.
Great design, love the door modules. But to really be a hit, go with different bodies that ape classics from the 50s-80s. Whimsy sells!
As a cheapskate and a person with a small Texas ranchette, I get by with a kawasaki mule SX XC. But even on those low end specs, it is tempting to cross shop with a used midsize pickup. Perhaps this niche is doomed much the way nobody makes sub $15k cars anymore, because a used but more or less reliable car does the job as good or better.
The Toppling from Fiat or the Ami from Citroen are already available.
Why not make a half-door Mitsubishi Mirage with a removable roof panel?
Modern safety kit, reasonable comfort, and a much more palatable pricetag?
I actually did one a while ago where I took near-dead-battery Leafs like David’s and turned them into what you’re describing:How To Turn Nissan Leafs With Bad Batteries Into The Ultimate Resort Cars – The Autopian
I assume these would not be very safe in collisions with giant grilled pickup trucks.
And from my experience, the neighborhoods that have a lot of one also have a lot of the other.
At least today. I think it’s a great idea, basically an American’s sized Ami 🙂
That speaks to a completely different problem that nearly every road user faces. One that could be fairly easily remedied with some political cojones.
No. That’s why they’re limited to neighborhoods, retirement communities and resorts. I would not want to run one of those GEMs or even a Polaris into an F-150 at, well, any speed.
The semi retirement town I live outside of allows these sort of things to run everywhere except the four lane 55mph area.
They are a huge problem for most folks driving or walking in town.
Trying to make 6-8mph work with 35mph posted speed limits just does not work.
These things top out at 25-30 mph, or at least they are supposed to. That doesn’t mean that Grandpa is actually going to drive that fast.
The Main Street has a speed limit of 15mph. For like almost a mile.
The oldsters forget they are allowed to go faster when the limits go up.