How to Speed Up Your Golf Cart

As a disclaimer, increasing the speed of your cart may void your warranty, be dangerous driving at high speed, damage your cart, and in order for a cart to be street legal, 33 U.S. states limit the top speed of (Low Speed Vehicles) LSV vehicles. Each state has their own max speed and may change, but some examples for which states set a maximum speed include:

25 mph Montana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia.

30 mph Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland

45 mph Alaska, Texas

So how does one go about increasing the speed of your cart? Standard electric Golf Carts from Yamaha, E-Z-GO, Club Car will go between 12-14 mph, compared to our own Ultimate EV carts will go between 20 mph to 24 mph. But hypothetically, how would one increase the speed of the golf cart with a 48 volt golf cart?

Upgrade the motor - One of the most effective ways to increase the speed of your golf cart is to upgrade your motor to a high performance high speed motor.

Add more torque - Amperage = Torque. Use a motor with a higher RPM, and provide your motor with higher voltage

Upgrade your battery - Make sure you have a powerful battery that can handle the extra speed, and understand the faster you go, the more power you will use.

Lighten up your cart - The heavier your cart, the harder it will be to increase your speed. The quickest way to do this is to swap your heavy acid batteries with lithium which are oftentimes 5x lighter.

Buy larger tires - If you have the standard 8” golf cart tires, you can upgrade your tires to the 20” or 24” which will increase speed by a couple miles. Make sure you find out if you need to install a lift kit in order for your new bigger wheels can fit on your cart!

Upgrade your Solenoid - Solenoid Contactor Relay and Golf Cart Electric Speed Controller upgrade - For this upgrade, make sure you upgrade all components to the correct amp so you do not burn out any hardware.

Alter the gear ratio - Most golf carts have a 12.5:1 gear ratio, but lowering this to 6:1 may increase the speed by 2 mph.

As a reminder, this article is for informational purposes only.