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Club Car, an iconic golf cart producer, introduced the Club Car Urban LSV and XR on Wednesday, its latest street-legal electric vehicle. The Club Car Urban EV is a mini pickup built to get the job done with a dump truck bed for conveniently hauling and dumping payloads with several other cargo options.

Best known for its rich 60+ year history in designing and building golf carts (they are the official golf cart of the PGA of America and European Tour, after all), Club Car has expanded into commercial and personal use vehicles.

Club Car actually started by making a 36V electric golf cart and later branched out to gas-powered options. With demand for sustainable transportation soaring, Club Car has returned to its roots, introducing several zero-emission electric alternatives, such as personal transport, utility, golf cart, last mile-delivery, and street-legal EVs.

More recently, Electrek covered Club Cart’s new line of premium low-speed electric vehicles (LSVs) that are designed like an upscale open-air golf cart with a max speed of 25 mph.

The company’s latest innovation is a small-wheel mini pickup with a dump truck bed and other cargo options, the Club Car Urban LSV, and XR electric utility vehicles.

Electric-mini-pickup-truck-bed-1
Club Car Urban LSV electric utility vehicle (source: Club Car)

Club Car’s new mini electric pickup with a dump truck bed

The electric urban utility vehicles are designed to address unique commercial and personal needs while significantly lowering emissions and operating costs.

Club Car’s mini electric pickup is available in two versions: XR (the non-street legal version) and the LSV street legal model that includes everything needed to drive on the road, such as 3-point seatbelts, mirrors, tail and brake lights, turn signals, a horn, storage compartment, and backup camera.

The street-legal LSV model can travel up to 25 mph, while the non-street-legal XR version travels 19 mph. In addition, you can choose from several cargo options, including a pickup bed (with an available tilt bed), a van box, or a pickup bed with a mesh cage.

The Urban EV is just 143 long, 54 inches wide (without mirrors), and 74 inches tall with a load bed length of 64 inches.

Despite its small size, the EV, powered by a 48V electric motor, has a peak power of 19.2 hp and can carry a payload of up to 2,204 lbs.

Club Car offers several lithium battery options, including 9.2 kWh, 10.2 kWh, and 12.2 kWh for a max range of up to 62 miles while offering “fast and efficient charging.”

Mark Wagner, president of Club Car, said at the release:

Our industrial and commercial customer’s looking for safe, on-road transportation that is street-legal, 100% electric and a low-cost solution will find the Urban to be the ideal fit.

One of its most significant benefits is the low operational costs compared to a full pickup or van. As Jeff Tyminski, vice president of product management at Club Car, explains, pickup trucks are the “wrong tool for many jobs.” Instead, he added:

A blended fleet of traditional pickup trucks and electric utility vehicles would improve operational productivity while lowering ownership costs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Club Car says the Urban LSV and XR EVs are now available through its commercial distributor network and for demonstration. US MSRP starts at $25,293.

Electrek’s Take

A mini pickup with a dump truck bed? Sign me up. These electric utility vehicles make the perfect option for companies and individuals looking to reduce costs and introduce greener alternatives.

Industries like landscaping, groundskeeping, campuses, last-mile delivery, municipals, and hospitals, to name a few, could benefit from introducing utility vehicles like Club Car’s Urban LSV and XR options.

Or, you could just have one to do tasks around the house and run errands.

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The first giant 15 MW turbine is up at Germany’s largest offshore wind farm

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The first giant 15 MW turbine is up at Germany’s largest offshore wind farm

Germany’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, EnBW’s He Dreiht, just hit a big milestone: The first enormous turbine is now up in the North Sea.

He Dreiht – which means “it spins” in Low German – is using Vestas’s massive 15 megawatt (MW) turbines, the first project in the world to install them. Just one spin of one of the rotors can generate enough electricity to power four households for an entire day.

When it’s finished, He Dreiht will have 64 mega turbines cranking out 960 megawatts (MW) of clean power – enough to supply around 1.1 million homes. And it’s being built without any government subsidies.

EnBW, one of Germany’s major energy companies, has been working in offshore wind for more than 15 years, but He Dreiht is their biggest project yet. “It will play a key role in helping us to significantly grow our renewable energy output from 6.6 GW to over 10 GW by 2030,” said Michael Class, who heads up EnBW’s generation portfolio development.

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The project is a win for Vestas, too. “With the installation of the first V236-15.0 MW, we have reached an important milestone for both the He Dreiht project and our offshore ramp-up, which helps Germany build a more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system,” said Nils de Baar, president of Vestas Northern & Central Europe.

He Dreiht is located about 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of Borkum and 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Helgoland. At peak times, more than 500 workers will be out at sea building the farm, using a fleet of more than 60 ships. EnBW’s offshore team in Hamburg is running the show.

The installation process is a major operation. The 64 foundations were already set in the seabed last year. Parts for the turbines are loaded onto the installation vessel Wind Orca in Esbjerg, Denmark, and shipped out in a 12-hour journey to the construction site. From there, the turbines are lifted into place. Meanwhile, crews are also working on internal wind farm cabling.

A partner consortium made up of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP, and Norges Bank Investment Management owns 49.9% of the shares in He Dreiht.

Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build


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Tesla gives update on Tesla Semi factory, says on track for volume production in 2026

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Tesla gives update on Tesla Semi factory, says on track for volume production in 2026

Tesla has released a quick update about its Tesla Semi factory in Nevada. It says that it is on track for volume production of the electric semi truck in 2026.

The Tesla Semi was first scheduled to go into production in 2019, but it has faced numerous delays.

Now, it appears that there is finally some momentum to bring it to volume production.

For the last two years, Tesla has been working to build a new factory next to Gigafactory Nevada, where it builds the battery packs and drive units for most of its electric vehicles built in North America.

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Today, Tesla released a “progress update on the factory, confirming that it finished building and it’s now working on deploying the production lines:

Tesla had previously mentioned aiming for volume production by 2025, but it is now only talking about starting production toward the end of the year and ramping up next year.

The automaker reiterated its planned production capacity of 50,000 units.

We recently reported that an early Tesla Semi customer, Ryder, stated that the electric truck program is experiencing more delays and a price increase described as “dramatic.”

They now expect to take deliveries of their first trucks later in 2026 and said that the price has increased “dramatically,” leading them to scale back their pilot program from 42 to 18 Tesla Semi trucks.

When originally unveiling the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker mentioned prices of $150,000 for a 300-mile range truck and $180,000 for the 500-mile version. Tesla also took orders for a “Founder’s Series Semi” at $200,000.

However, Tesla didn’t update the prices when launching the “production version” of the truck in late 2022. Price increases have been speculated, but the company has never confirmed them.

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Vietnamese solar giant Boviet opens first US factory in North Carolina

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Vietnamese solar giant Boviet opens first US factory in North Carolina

Vietnamese solar panel maker Boviet Solar just opened the doors to its first US factory — a huge new PV module plant in Greenville, North Carolina.

The company dropped $294 million into the state-of-the-art facility, which will pump out Boviet’s Gamma Series monofacial and Vega Series bifacial solar panels. They’re using advanced PERC and N-Type solar cell tech, which basically means these panels are built to deliver higher efficiency and better performance across residential, commercial, industrial, and utility-scale projects.

The Greenville factory’s first phase is now online with an annual PV module output capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). For Phase 2, which is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2026, Boviet will invest another $100 million to add 600,000 square feet and ramp up to another 2 GW. It will make high-efficiency solar cells.

Once both phases are complete, Boviet’s campus will cover more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and R&D space. It’s one of the biggest clean energy manufacturing projects North Carolina has ever seen.

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The jobs impact is significant, too. The first phase will create 460 skilled local jobs. Phase 2 is expected to add another 908, bringing the total to over 1,300 direct jobs, plus nearly 2,000 more indirect jobs across the region. That’s good news for Pitt County’s economy, real estate market, and workforce training programs.

“This facility is not just creating jobs, but creating opportunity, innovation, and a stronger foundation for eastern North Carolina,” said Senator Kandie Smith. Governor Josh Stein added that Boviet Solar’s move shows how North Carolina is leading the way in clean energy growth.

Read more: Thomas Built Buses debuts its next-gen electric school bus


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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –ad*

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