They arent full cars, yet theyre a lot closer to them than a golf cart. Thanks to features like electric windows, air conditioning, three point, seat belts, Etc, there arent very many of this class of vehicle in the US, at least not yet, but thats changing and quickly. Hey everyone Micah here with electric and today Im coming to you from New York City, where we are testing out the wink Motors low speed Vehicles come along with me. While we check them out, I had the chance to test out two different wink models which were fresh off the line even still with their packaging on them. So I got to be the one to remove the plastic, though I forgot a couple pieces. Apparently they even still had their car covers on them that big silvery thing in the back there, though the back seat on this one, is folded down anyways in cargo format, but you could fold it back up to get a couple more seats back there. There are actually four different four seater models in the wink lineup, which I got to see in Winx Us warehouse. There were two of this smaller car, known as the Sprout one, with a solar panel on top and one without then there are two versions of this slightly larger model. One is a coupe called the mark one and then theres this one with four doors and a solar panel on top, and this one is known as the Mark II solar, the vehicles range in price, from around nine thousand to twelve thousand bucks, depending on the model And options, and if you knew the industry that might sound steep, but if youve seen what new golf carts cost these days, then thats actually around the same price, except that these are fully street legal electric vehicles, not golf buggies.

So why would someone want a little Runabout like this, its basically a more efficient, lower cost alternative to a car? You get all the covered climate, controlled advantages of a car like heater and air conditioning, plus locking doors. You can leave your stuff in the vehicle, but you also get the nimbleness of a smaller vehicle, not quite like a biker scooter, but almost you can easily Park them even in a spot smaller than the footprint of a normal sized sedan, let alone with enough size. For a normal car to wiggle into heck, you could probably Park them nose in if thats legal in your city, foreign Music, that climate control is a big deal too. If youre in an area that regularly gets cold or hot or rainy or snowy, you can ride a bike in the rain or snow sure, but its not a lot of fun. A wink, on the other hand, doesnt mind the rain or snow at all. The car is also narrow enough to wiggle into or around just about anything youd want, including getting into places where you probably shouldnt be, but you just couldnt pass up the photo op value of a great Skyline shop. I see these vehicles as fitting into three major use cases. The first is for urban residents where theyd be used. Just like you see me here, driving around a city with four seats. These vehicles can fit the whole family or you can get a couple weeks worth of groceries in them, especially in the mark water Mark II that have that hatchback and back and storage behind the rear bench, though, as I mentioned, those bench seats can fall down for Extra cargo room now 25 miles an hour, Probably sounds slow to you, but its actually more than enough for many cities, the average speed of traffic in Manhattan is 4.

7 miles per hour, believe it or not in an entire day of driving. Here I think I was only able to get up to the top speed a couple times when I didnt have any cars in front of me. The best chance I had was when I took the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan and since lsvs are legally allowed on roads posted up to 35 miles per hour, and the Brooklyn Bridge has a 35 mile an hour speed limit. It was a great chance to put the pedal to the metal Music foreign. The Second Use case I can see for these is for suburbs or Beach. Communities basically places outside of dense cities, but where 25 miles per hour is still an acceptable speed. Im talking crews in the local neighborhood, taking your kids to their friends house cruising along the beach driving around Island communities Etc. In the third use case I can see, for these is for planned communities, retirement villages, that sort of thing basically think of the State of Florida. In all of these cases, a small light and easy to use electric vehicle is a big Advantage, not to mention that its much cheaper than a car both to purchase and to operate. And if you get the solar version, it might even be free to operate. The solar panel on top can get around 5 to 10 miles of charge into the battery per day in sunny weather, which might just be how much an average city dweller uses their car.

Each day, but of course, you could also charge it up from a typical 120 volt Outlet, as well and as far as range. The vehicles have a big lithium iron phosphate battery thats both fireproof and has an enough range for between 40 to 60 miles per day. Depending on how fast youre driving now one very important consideration about low speed Vehicles is whether or not theyre actually street legal as in dot certified. There are very few lsv manufacturers in the US of the few that exist only a couple actually produce in the US. The others import from overseas like a wink vehicle here. The problem is, when you import from overseas its even harder to be street legal, because not only do all of the components need to be dot certified and meet the requirements for lsvs. But in fact the factory has to be registered with the National Highway Traffic and safety administration. If thats not the case, if the factory isnt certified with the nhtsa, then the car simply is not street legal in the US and you can actually go on the nhtsa website and look up who are the certified manufacturers to see which lsvs are legal? There arent increasing number of foreign made micro cars coming to the US, but most are not actually street legal as they arent produced to Federal standards, nor the manufacturers registered with the dot link Motors spent over a year jumping through all the Hoops to become a street Legal lsv manufacturer, which is pretty darn important if youre going to be driving on public streets, the vehicles have actual VIN numbers on file with the nhtsa and can be registered and plated at your local DMV foreign.

How safe I feel driving around in one of these? Well, as someone who doesnt use a car and normally gets around by bike or motorcycle, I actually kind of felt safer than normal sure. It was annoying waiting in traffic when Im used to lane splitting and just slipping around cars, and I kept having to fight the urge to use my small size to just slip past cars when there was plenty of room to do it and look. There are times when youre, surrounded by bigger vehicles, and you feel a bit out of place on the road in one of these, but when youre in a city like this, just because other cars are bigger, doesnt really mean much theyre, not faster, since theyre all stuck Doing 10 or 15 miles an hour together anyway, they may be more powerful, so theyll get up to that 15 mile, an hour faster, but other than that theyre, simply taking up more space and in a smaller vehicle. Like this, I felt more Nimble and better able to react. Thats, especially true since Im someone that spends 99 of my time on a two wheeler in a city, meaning Im, always looking at gaps and traffic flow differently than most drivers of living rooms on wheels and a small Nimble. Little vehicle like this lets me treat commuting a little more like I do on a bike, just rather inside of a more comfortable and arguably safer vehicle than most of my two wheelers, speaking of which lets talk safety for a moment when it comes to safety.

There are fewer safety regulations that lsvs have to comply with compared to regular cars, so there are not any airbags or crumple zones Etc, but wink did go above and beyond the federal standards for lsvs, including installing higher quality, dot. Three point: seat belts from actual cars, higher quality, Automotive safety, glass, dual circuit, hydraulic, disc, brakes that belong on a much larger vehicle than this, and several other areas around the vehicle plus youre in a brightly, colored car and basically the same height as other drivers. Though a Suburban might still have a couple of inches on you, so no one is going to tell you that these are as safe as quote unquote real cars. But then again they arent meant to be theyre, designed to be a form of upgrade over micro Mobility. So if I had to choose between getting hit by a car while on a bike, skateboard or other ride on vehicle or while buckled into a steel frame, low speed, vehicle Id choose the second one Music. Thank you. Music. All told Im pretty excited about the future of lsvs in the US, and I think wink has really landed on something neat here. There are fancy electric bicycles that cost 9, 000 bucks and so to get a car like electric vehicle for the same price is pretty darn impressive sure these lsvs have limited utility compared to real cars, and if you live off of a 50 mile per hour road, This is not for you, but youre, also on the minority, because most people dont live on the side of a highway and just because it doesnt work for everyone, doesnt mean it wont, work for a lot of people, and so, even if just a fraction of the Us starts replacing a second large car or SUV with a smaller lsv or even forego a real car entirely and just get by with a bike and an lsv.

Then that would go a long way to making our cities safer, cleaner and more pleasant to move around. Whether the way you get around is by car bike or shoes, a future with more micro Vehicles like these well thats a future. I want to live in thanks for watching everyone. We hope you enjoyed that first ride in the wink Motors Sprout and the wink Motors Mark II. If you did enjoy the video we hope you give it a thumbs up. Dont forget to subscribe, so you wont miss any of our future electric vehicle videos. Well see you here next time well, never know why its coming Music sing, it louder.

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