This article draws on material originally composed by John C. Triolo and published in 2007. It is enlightening both from a historical standpoint and also from a prophetic perspective. I like to think that John and I had and have something of a common view of the industry and the market, and how it would evolve. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I record some of his most insightful, and, as I said, prophetic commentary on the state of the golf car industry, circa 2006-7, and how it would likely change.
Introducing Jack
Over a decade and a half ago an enterprising golf car dealer by the name of John Triolo (Jack to his many friends) put pen to paper and set out his vision of how the golf car industry and market could possibly develop. Jack has been in the golf car industry for over 35 years. His dealership is located in the western mountains of North Carolina, and he is an authorized dealer for both E-Z-GO and Club Car. Jack has a great sense of humor and a gift with the pen, as you will see, as I quote him widely from his 2007 publication.
Understand that in the mid-2000s most in the industry at the time had the view that, “A golf cart is a golf cart and nothing else.” Thus, the vehicle was seen as anchored in golf where the only innovations might be adding another cupholder or widening the front-end storage space somehow—and maybe providing a lock. This was an industry quavering before the decision to move to AC from DC electric motors because it would add $1,000 to the purchase price.
The golf cart as the platform of pollution-free future
This was not Jack’s attitude or vision. Giving due deference to its roots in golf and where the vehicle stood in the mid-2000s, Jack said, “Once a clumsy and irritable contraption, today the golf cart is a highly engineered transportation mode, capable of many functions outside of carrying golfers & their bags around 18 holes.”
“Think about it,” he goes on to say, “these vehicles have been designed & built to reliably traverse bumpy fairways with a distracted, often inebriated golfer at the controls. They are practically indestructible, with a half-life of at least 20 years, and are the only mass-produced car-like small vehicles that are available in large numbers at a very reasonable cost.”
“It’s no wonder,” he states, [that] “they are evolving into a new method of personal and work transportation as they provide the perfect platform to carry people or cargo, or both.” Jack adds, waxing eloquent as an early, climate change crusader, “And of greater value to our air-polluted, oil hungry nation today, electric golf cars are the de facto Alternative Fueled Vehicle of choice, despite the intransience of our esteemed legislators in Washington.” (Hey Jack, you called it. They are not so intransigent today!)
How we got here (again, circa 2007)
“The manufacturers have identified some ‘other than golf market segments,” Jack notes, “and they build new products to serve them…” but, he adds, it is the plethora of used golf carts coming off lease programs that drives the burgeoning market.” He cites the key role of golf car dealers in this process: “As the uses for these recycled carts has expanded far beyond the golf course, It has been up to the end user or small dealer how best to configure the vehicle for their individual need or local market.” Jack notes, “We have asked the company heads if the use of ‘golf’ in the term, ‘golf car” might be passe. Of course, they don’t think so, and golf is, by far, the primary source for these durable, affordable cars.”
Jack’s forward look into the market has come to pass. What were viewed as secondary market segments have, indeed, become manufacturers’ primary source of sales revenue and profits—even surpassing fleet sales in terms of units. His other point in the above passage relating, in the mid-2000s period, to the abundance of used vehicles coming off golf course leases—and the role of the local dealer in meeting segment demand and adapting vehicles to suit customer needs—suggests two critical generalizations:
- As the golf car product becomes more differentiated with regard to characteristics and attributes, the dealer continues to play a key role (and I would say one of growing importance);
- The supply of used vehicles, which lay the basis for vehicle customization at the local level may well be repeating itself in the growing supplies of not used vehicles, but rather new vehicles targeted to the PTV/LSV market segment.
What lies ahead…
Jack Triolo’s prescient summary of where things stood circa 2007 and his insights into the developing segments of PTVs/LSVs and light duty utility vehicles lead to further questions that, now we have full recognition of the importance of these segments, where do we go from here?
One thing no one anticipated back then in 2007 or for that matter until it actually started happing in 2020/2021, and that was the flood of partially assembled vehicles, mainly from China, delivered to final assembly facilities around the country. Most of these facilities are owned by recent startup companies, one of which is featured in the cover story of this issue.
Mark Twain reputedly quipped, “History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhythm.” So, is this a case in point? Will the flood of new vehicles literally push the market into further expansion, as seen with used carts coming off leases In the mid-2000s? (The opportunity is there with the increasing use of LSVs on public roads and in urban environments, where there is potential to become the dominant vehicle in the mobility as a service market.) Or, is what we are seeing an undisciplined over-build in the industry, leading to a mass exit?
Big question, one which we at Small Vehicle Resource will fully analyze in our upcoming comprehensive analysis of, and forecast for the industry and the market. In the meantime I will be consulting with Jack and urging him to give us a sequel to his previous analysis (this time circa 2023).
