The car of the future is an EV golf cart

What It Covers

The Verge's transportation editor Andy Hawkins examines a growing U.S. market for low-speed electric vehicles — essentially upgraded golf carts capped at 25 mph — positioned as affordable second vehicles, spotlighting startups Chip Motors and Amble as early entrants targeting suburban short-trip use cases.

Key Questions Answered

• •Regulatory threshold: Low-speed electric vehicles (LSEVs) qualify under federal motor safety standards requiring only headlights, taillights, turn signals, mirrors, parking brakes, and seat belts — no airbags, crumple zones, or backup cameras required. This amounts to roughly two pages of regulations, dramatically lowering the compliance burden compared to standard EVs and enabling faster, cheaper product development cycles.
• •Second-vehicle market gap: Average U.S. vehicle transaction prices have risen to approximately $50,000 post-pandemic, leaving buyers seeking second vehicles with few affordable options. LSEVs target this gap directly — not competing against F-150s or Escalades, but against compact sedans like Kias and Hyundais, where consumer willingness to downsize is measurably higher and price sensitivity is strongest.
• •Golf cart sales signal: Existing golf cart sales data in warm-weather U.S. markets — particularly Florida and the Sun Belt — already demonstrate consumer appetite for low-speed second vehicles. High school parking lots in these communities now contain golf carts alongside traditional cars, indicating organic adoption without manufacturer marketing, which validates the addressable market before purpose-built LSEVs reach scale.
• •Road infrastructure constraint: LSEVs are legally restricted to roads with posted speed limits of 35 mph or below, making community road composition the primary adoption barrier. Buyers should map their daily routes before purchasing — if even one connecting road exceeds 35 mph, the vehicle becomes impractical. Florida communities have begun building dedicated LSEV-specific road corridors linking schools, parks, and retail as a replicable infrastructure model.
• •Autonomy compatibility advantage: The 25 mph speed cap makes LSEVs structurally better candidates for Level 4 autonomous operation than highway-capable vehicles, since eliminating high-speed highway scenarios removes the hardest edge cases in self-driving development. Chip Motors is building toward a fully driverless summon-and-park feature, positioning the vehicle to transition from owned second car to shared autonomous mobility asset over time.