Could this Chinese electric vehicle be your next car?

                                Brue & Yin EV4-60  $13,500

The US DOT now has a special category of low power vehicles or neighborhood electric vehicles designed to be driven in areas where the speed limit is 35 miles per hour or less. In retirement communities, like The Villages and smaller size developments,  the electric vehicle or gas powered golf carts are popular options. If you happen to live someplace where the grocery store, the post office and office buildings are all close to each other, it might be your transportation of the future.

Brue & Yin ( www.bylsv.com) came about by accident, and not an automobile accident.

Wenlong Yin ( Chinese national) and Robert Brue ( American) met when they were both in the Northern Illinois University MBA program.  The two decided to form a company to sell to sell ether injection systems for diesel engines.  Basically, they were exporters.

The ether injection helps get engines started in cold weather.  Their customers include the military and Caterpillar. 

Their goal was to distribute the injection systems in China.  To do that, they were in China for a month having meetings.

“We went through a city where all these little electric vehicles were driving around, and I saw them and immediately thought, Oh my God, that’s a great product for the US,” Robert Brue explained about what would be their next product.  They would now become importers.

He found out they had both air conditioning and heat he put in an order for four demos, and he was thinking farther ahead.

“We secured the distribution agreement for the entire US,” Brue added. “Since then we’ve selling in the southeast and are now trying to open up Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington.”

The company that manufactures the produces them domestically for China and exports to Europe, Russia and Mongolia.

They have four models, one a small truck and the others that look like small SUVs.

There are the 2-seater and 4-seater All Electric Golf Cart/Low Speed Vehicle ( EV2-28 and EV4-40), the 2-seater All Electric Truck ( EV2-40) and the 4-seater All Electric Golf Cart/Low Speed Vehicle, which looks like a mini SUV (EV4-60). 

What is shocking is the price.  The EV4-40 is just $11,500 and comes with a bevy of extras including the necessary AC.  http://www.bylsv.com/ev4-40.html   

Even more shocking is their latest model which has ramifications for those who want to live in big cities where parking can be a nightmare.  It is called the EV4-60 and looks like someone shrunk your SUV. All the features you’d expect in a car seem to be there, and the price is just $13,500. http://www.bylsv.com/coming-soon....html

When it comes to range, the EV4-40 will go 90 miles on a charge, 74 miles with the AC blasting. 

“We like to tell people 74 because that’s what our tests are showing,” Brue said. 

The EV4-60 will go 125 miles on a charge and with the AC turned up all the way, it goes 110.

However, there’s a built in regenerative braking that actually charges the battery.

“Depending on how the driver is operating the vehicle, we’ve got regenerative braking, so if you let it roll to a stop instead of slamming on the brakes, and lightly touch the brakes when you are rolling to a stop, that actually charges the batteries and you can get even a higher mileage than we claim,” he added.  

“We’ve got power steering, power brakes, power windows and a large system on an EV4-60 so we’re really moving towards trying to convince people that you don’t need a gas vehicle to drive down the street to the grocery store,” Brue said.

They have a dealer in Wildwood, Florida, close to The Villages, and they are continually working on their dealer network.  The best way to find out where to get one of these vehicles is to visit their web site and request that information. Service, they know, is important.

“It’s the only thing that matters,” Brue added. “If they can’t get serviced, they’re upset and we’re not going to do well, and so we make sure the vehicles are sold in areas that we can have a new dealer at hand that is more than qualified to be able to repair the vehicles.”

The trucks, EV2-40 models, Brue said, are popular with guys because of the storage they offer and because the storage back compartment locks.  Brue & Yin also modifies the trucks to be beverage carts.

The small, 2-seater, All Electric Golf Cart/Low Speed Vehicle is even less, $9,500.