New golf fleet plan: 240 gas-powered carts for $950,000

The city of Wichita has teed up a proposal to spend nearly $1 million on high-tech gas-driven carts to replace its fleet of aging electric golf carts.

The proposed purchase was unveiled at a City Council agenda review meeting Friday and will go to a vote on Tuesday.

“Our carts are old and falling apart,” said council member Janet Miller. “The charges don’t last through 18 holes so (course employees) have to go out and rescue people. It makes for a really bad customer service experience.”

The city golf department proposes to purchase 240 new Yamaha Quietech EFI carts and trade in 204 used electric carts.

The additional new carts will go to the city’s two busiest courses, Tex Consolver and Sim Park, officials said.

Counting the trade-ins, the net cost will be $950,000. That works out to $4,374 per cart, city documents show.

Miller characterized it as a case of having to spend money to make money. The golf courses bring in about $1 million a year from cart rentals, according to city records.

But they miss out on some revenue because they don’t have enough carts available to rent one to everybody who wants one, Miller said.

This is the second time a proposal for new carts has come before the council in recent months. In August, the council turned aside a plan to buy 120 slightly used gas-powered carts for $446,000.

Council members and some members of the public questioned the cost and environmental impact of gas carts.

Since then, the city has done a cost analysis finding that the gas-powered carts are ultimately more economical than electric carts, City Manager Robert Layton said. While they cost $300-$400 more up front, gas carts require less maintenance and have a longer service life that catches them up on cost over the life of the vehicle, he said.

Over 12 years, the Quietech carts will cost slightly less than $1.2 million in purchase and operating costs, compared with $1.5 million for the least-expensive electric carts, the city analysis showed.

Gas carts also can bring in more revenue for the Golf Department because they can be rented out for several rounds per day without downtime to recharge, said Troy Hendricks, city golf manager.

The new carts, with electronically controlled fuel-injected engines, have very low emissions, especially when compared with models using carburetors, Hendricks said.

They’re also pretty quiet, only about two decibels louder than the electric carts the city has now, he said.

The purchase is scheduled for a vote at the council meeting that begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 555 N. Main.

This story was originally published March 4, 2017 at 7:36 PM with the headline "New golf fleet plan: 240 gas-powered carts for $950,000."