London isn’t short of ways to get about: bus, Tube, Overground, trains, Lime bikes, Hackney cabs, and Shank’s pony. But have you ever considered using a golf cart?
Yo-Go is the unlikely start-up asking that very question – as it tries to challenge the capital’s love affair with cars. It wants to steer people away from jumping into a big car when just a little one will do.
For the past few months ten bright yellow buggies have been unleashed upon the streets of Fulham, framed as a cheap and very cheerful alternative to hiring a car.
Capable of speeds of up to 20mph and with enough juice to travel 50km (31 miles), Yo-Go says its carts are primed to tackle school runs and trips to the shops and other short journeys for which most Londoners would use a car.
They’re based on a golf cart produced by a Chinese firm called Marshell – but have been juiced up to make them road-legal with car-spec brakes, indicators, a windscreen wiper and three-point seatbelts to ensure the DVSA is happy.
They cost just £7,000 – which means Yo-Go can afford to hire them out for just 20p a minute, or half that if you fork out for their £10-per-month Honey membership.
But even the higher rate is cheaper than jumping on one of London’s darling Lime bikes. And with double the seats and two boots, they’re much more practical.
The whole idea is pleasantly eccentric – and comes courtesy of Dr Samuel Bailey, a former automotive engineer turned professional inventor, and his team of experts on city travel (or ‘urban mobility’, if you want to sound clever).
Yo-Go has converted a fleet of golf buggies to be completely road-legal and unleashed them on the roads of Fulham
MailOnline reporter Jon Brady with two of the Yo-Go buggies that can be hired and driven across London
The bright yellow buggies are eye-catching – and by far the friendliest-looking thing on four wheels in London
He designed Leakbot, a clip-on leak detector for water pipes, and Pippa, an AI-based stovetop early warning system designed to prevent cooking fires. Now he’s trying to reinvent the wheel – literally.
‘What we’re trying to do is create an alternative for people who want to use an electric vehicle,’ he told MailOnline.
‘But buying a full-size electric vehicle is expensive, so we’re trying to make it lower cost and more accessible for people to use a more environmentally friendly form of transport.
‘It’s safe and accessible – it’s like driving a car, only smaller, and far more convenient for people to get around London.’
The electric buggies have tiny batteries in them – which keeps them cheap. Any units that are low on battery will be plugged into nearby lamppost chargers by the Yo-Go team to keep them topped up.
Dr Bailey says there are also fail-safes built in to stop people from hiring a Yo-Go that’s running low on charge, so they can’t juddering to a halt mid-trip.
They are also, Dr Bailey assured us, unlikely to be stolen. Each one is immobilised until unlocked with the Yo-Go app – access to which requires users to be over 25 with a driving licence at least two years old.
And once on the road, users are subject to the law in the same way as they would be hiring a car – with a £250 excess in the event of an accident.
So anyone behind the wheel of one should, in theory, be far more careful than the average Lime bike rider, whose often feckless road manners are regularly the subject of stinging criticism.
And in the four months the buggies have been on the road, Yo-Go says they haven’t been made aware of a single accident.
The interior of a Yo-Go buggy. It’s not exactly a Rolls-Royce, but at 20p a minute to hire there’s little to complain about
The driving position is elevated, and the dashboard reassuringly spartan. These things have one purpose – to ferry you about on the cheap, ideally with a smile on your face
A stalk on the wheel controls the indicators, headlights and horn – while the pedals are helpfully labelled ‘STOP’ and ‘GO’ so there’s no risk of a mix-up
The digital dashboard records your speed and charge level – as well as which gear is selected and whether your indicators are on
The other side of the steering column features a gear selector and a windscreen wiper switch
The Yo-Go buggies are based on an existing golf cart produced by Chinese firm Mansell – and then adapted to make them road-legal in the UK
‘You’re fully insured as soon as you’re in the vehicle. But they are surprisingly hard to damage,’ Dr Bailey adds.
‘We’ve put a lot of thought into theft-proofing. They’re fully immobilised until you get a secret code (to unlock it). You can’t hotwire these things.’
But how are they to drive? Getting behind the wheel on a chilly January morning the first impression of the Yo-Go is that they might be better suited to driving in June.
How much does it cost to Yo-Go?
Yo-Go’s pricing is, at least for now, extremely competitive compared to other ways of getting around – especially against other forms of private transport like e-bikes.
Yo-Go: 20p/minute (10p/minute with a £10/month subscription)
Lime e-bike: £1 unlock fee, ~29p/minute
Zipcar Flex: From 34p/minute on £6/month Smart membership
Santander Cycles: £1.65 for up to 30 minutes
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Anyone considering hiring one in the winter would do well to bring a scarf and gloves. Yo-Go says a heater and some form of cover for the doors are being considered for future upgrades.
Hiring it is as easy as ‘unlock’ in the Yo-Go app before pushing a power button inside.
A foot-toggled parking brake primes it for launch while a gear selector on the side of the steering column allows you to put it in forward or reverse.
There’s a stalk to operate the indicators and the lights, and a tiny button to sound a pleasantly ‘peepy’ horn.
The spartan digital dashboard in the centre records speed, the remaining battery level and whether your indicators are on – an essential feature, because they don’t self-cancel as they would in a normal car.
Beyond that, home comforts are relatively few: cup holders for a much-needed hot drink, wing and rear view mirrors, a pair of USB ports to charge your phone and driver and passenger glove boxes big enough to hold the contents of your pockets.
So the Yo-Go is reassuringly utilitarian – all chunky plastic and hefty metal, with a few visible cables looping around its rollcage that speak to the fact this is very much a first attempt at trying something new.
With mirrors set and seatbelt on, setting off is as easy as selecting ‘D’ and pressing the ‘GO’ pedal, which after a little bit of travel sends the buggy forward with a modest shove.
A pleasant whine takes you up to the top speed of 20mph – the borough-wide speed limit – while lifting off the pedal engages aggressive regeneration braking to reclaim some of the battery power.
It means you rarely touch the brake pedal, helpfully labelled ‘STOP’. But the carts weigh so little
Dr Samuel Bailey is an automotive engineer-turned-inventor who is now the boss of Yo-Go
He believes the carts have the potential to be a real alternative to car ownership in Fulham – and perhaps even beyond
MailOnline reporter Jon Brady prepares to take a test drive in the Yo-Go on a chilly January morning. Gloves and a scarf are recommended for winter driving
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The little Yo-Gos boast chunky tyres – reassuring enough to tackle even the hardiest speed bumps and potholes. Expect to feel any jolts though
It boasts chunky tyres – and because they’re right at the corners of the cart, you can pull a tight U-turn should you find yourself in a dead end, like a London taxi doing an about turn at the entrance to the Savoy Hotel.
With no windows or doors to speak of, other than a front windscreen, it’s very easy to feel exposed at the wheel. That may be half the point, as driving anywhere close to 20mph feels twice as fast compared to a regular car.
But that makes it far easier to give a grateful wave to those who lets you out at junctions. The friendly little Yo-Go did not struggle when it came to joining the road – it’s very hard not to give way to the friendliest-looking thing on four wheels.
Independent suspension at the front means it’s comfortable over little cracks and bumps: you’ll feel them, but not to the point it shatters your spine.
And parking is a doddle – just drive in at a right angle to the kerb.
But there are caveats beyond getting chilly fingers. There are faster modes of transport: driving from one end of Fulham to the other takes about 15 minutes, while the Tube takes half that.
And for all its cutesy charm, the Yo-Go is still legally a car – and won’t squeeze through the same gaps in traffic as a bicycle.
We’d give second thought to driving one on rainy days – until a weather cover comes along, if it does at all.
There’s also the fact that Yo-Gos must be returned to their point of origin to end the hire – at least for now. At least they can’t be dumped willy-nilly, so there will be no Lime bike-esque pile-ups of buggies on street corners.
But in the summer – or when paired with a respectable set of thermals – these really do have the potential to be a fun, cheap alternative to using a car.
It’s not a pipe dream either: they really are being used.
A line of Yo-Go buggies at Parsons Green – one of four zones across Fulham where they can be hired. The cart has to be returned to its point of origin to end the rental
Yo-Go says it wants its buggies to be a viable alternative to driving and even cycling – for those trips where a set of wheels are really needed
Yo-Gos must be parked where they were hired to end the rental – which at least means no Lime-style ugly pile-ups in the streets
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Like a regular car, the Yo-Gos are taxed and registered as a road-going vehicle – meaning they even have number plates, attached to one of their two boots
Cllr Steve Cowan, the leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, is excited by the idea of scores of Yo-Gos buzzing across the borough
As we spoke with Dr Bailey on the edge of Parsons Green – one of four places across the borough where Yo-Gos can be hired – people stopped to inspect the buggies, and to scan the little QR codes that direct them to the app to get started.
It suggests there’s a real need for cheap, cheerful motoring – particularly in central London, where ownership is below the national average.
TfL research suggests 54 percent of households in the capital have a car, but this is skewed by the fact most people in outer boroughs of the capital drive. On average, Londoners drive less than two miles a day each year.
And in Hammersmith and Fulham, just 42 per cent of homes have access to a car – probably because of the extensive public transport network across the inner capital, and the cost of keeping a car.
The rise of car clubs, providing on-demand access to a car for a few hours at a time, have also popped up as an alternative to full-time ownership.
Yo-Go’s buggies are intended to fill in the gap for when nothing but a car will do – elbowing into the space inhabited by car clubs, and offering a viable alternative to cycling for those who can’t stomach fighting with traffic on two wheels.
And in testing the carts for the last few months, the firm has been given some surprising reasons as to why drivers hopped on board.
‘It’s mostly replacing car journeys – people doing things like dropping the kids at school, going to the shops, taking kids to swimming lessons,’ Dr Bailey adds.
‘But we’ve had some surprises. They’re quite popular with builders, who are using them to go to Screwfix to pick up a packet of screws.
‘There are carers using these to go around and visit their patients. There are uses that we haven’t expected.’
The company’s next goal is to expand the fleet to 50 buggies in Hammersmith and Fulham in the near future. Other London boroughs and cities further afield are on its radar if all goes well.
Cllr Stephen Cowan, leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, is excited to see the buggies take to the roads in greater numbers.
The borough has the densest concentration of electric car chargers of any local authority in Britain, and electric car owners qualify for free parking permits.
He told MailOnline: ‘We really think this has got legs. Sam (Dr Bailey) contacted us asking to do a trial and within a very short space of time he was out doing it.
‘These are a very useful addition to the transport offer that people need.’
As for our verdict? These buzzy little buggies might just be glorified golf carts – but Yo-Go’s idea of short-term tripping could well be teeing up for success.
