A Yo-Go electric rental buggy is seen parked by the roadside on January 20, 2025 in Fulham, England. ... [+] Ten Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) made by Yo-Go, are on trial in Fulham, West London. Costing 20p per minute to hire and with a top speed of 20mph, the CEO and inventor Sam Bailey sees them as a pollution-free way of travelling. The trial will soon extend to 50 vehicles which the council say can be parked anywhere, free of charge. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)Getty ImagesHas Fulham suddenly turned into a golf course? No, those electric carts are Yo-Gos.Ten of the bright yellow golf-cart style buggies are being trialled until October as part of a micro mobility sharing scheme across a small part of Fulham in London.Call them golf carts, or electric buggies, but Yo-Go calls them Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs). They're specifically designed for local journeys, with a maximum speed of 20mph. Because they're lighter than a standard vehicle, they are safer for pedestrians, the company claims.A Yo-Go electric rental buggy is seen parked by the roadside on January 20, 2025 in Fulham, England. ... [+] Ten Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) made by Yo-Go, are on trial in Fulham, West London. Costing 20p per minute to hire and with a top speed of 20mph, the CEO and inventor Sam Bailey sees them as a pollution-free way of travelling. The trial will soon extend to 50 vehicles which the council say can be parked anywhere, free of charge. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)Getty ImagesThey will cost 20p a minute to rent, but that falls to 10p a minute for members with a 10 a month subscription. Anyone hoping to use a Yo-Go will need to be 25-70 years in age and have held a UK or EU driver's licence for at least two years.Yo-Go versus carsWhile the buggies will operate on a similar sharing model to bike schemes such as those operated by Transport for London and Lime, the company doesn't want to dislodge active travel but prevent trips by cars, which are often relatively short.MORE FOR YOU"What were hoping is that theyll be more of a replacement for cars," Yo-Go's CEO, Dr Sam Bailey, told Southwark News. "What we want to do is create something that feels more familiar, feels like driving something where youve got a seat-belt, youve got a roll cage, youve got a roof, somewhere you can put some luggage so that its sort of an easier swap, if youre a car user, to move to something like this," he added.Driving a Yo-GoSo far, 250 local residents have registered to use the ten buggies, with plans to add another 40 to the fleet. There's so far only one place to pick up the buggies, at Woodlawn Road, and they must be returned to the same spot after the trip.In this photo illustration, a phone displays the Yo-Go app as it rests on the steering wheel of a ... [+] Yo-Go electric rental buggy on January 20, 2025 in Fulham, England. Ten Neighbourhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) made by Yo-Go, are on trial in Fulham, West London. Costing 20p per minute to hire and with a top speed of 20mph, the CEO and inventor Sam Bailey sees them as a pollution-free way of travelling. The trial will soon extend to 50 vehicles which the council say can be parked anywhere, free of charge. (Photo illustration by Leon Neal/Getty Images)Getty ImagesThat said, the company says the buggies have a 30-40 mile range on a full charge, and some of the NEVs have solar panels in the hopes of extending range by an extra 10 miles, but how effective that is, especially in winter, remains to be seen.They can be taken anywhere on local roads but not on motorways and not yet within the London Congestion Charging zone, though access to central London is in the works. They can be parked and left if running errands, with free parking in any council parking spot.Council plansHammersmith and Fulham, the local council where the trial is happening, has previously slapped down bike sharing companies for cluttering up streets, but Lime and Human Forest both operate there now. The district has also previously had an electric car sharing scheme called Bluecity, but it shut down in 2020 after three years in operation."These innovative electric buggies are another first for Hammersmith and Fulham as they offer residents and businesses an affordable, eco-friendly alternative," a spokesperson for the council said.Golf cart citiesWhile Yo-Go said the pilot was a world first, there are plenty of locations around the world that either allow golf carts on public roads notably golf-course-filled retiree communities in sunny US states, as well as tourist destinations, such as Costa Rica, Belize and Catalina Island in California.Golf cart vehicles in narrow street, Isla Mujeres, Caribbean Coast, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. ... [+] (Photo by: Geography Photos/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)Geography Photos/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesBut there's also Peachtree City in Georgia, which has long used golf carts for mobility on public streets, and they're used in some parts of China on public roads.Weirdly, it makes sense for crowded urban areas where short trips are common. Golf cars are slower and lighter, meaning they're less of a threat to pedestrians. When they're electric, they have no pollution at the point of use. And they're smaller, taking up less room on the road and for parking. Plus, the average driving speed in London is about 9mph more powerful vehicles are largely wasted.As Yo-Go noted on its website: "The stats speak for themselves. Transport is the largest source of UK greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 26% of total emissions. Road traffic is the biggest source of air pollution, and across London an estimated 1,000 people die each year due to poor air quality.""But we can change this," it added. "If every car in Hammersmith & Fulham drove just 5 miles less per week it would remove more than 10 million miles of traffic from the Borough's roads each year."As Bailey notes, Yo-Go shouldn't be a replacement for bikes but if every car in London was an electric cart, the city would be a very different place indeed.