Retired land developer. Clean energy advocate. The person who drove a BYD Shark up from Mexico to make a point.
In 2006, while my company was building a seniors housing development in Chemainus on Vancouver Island, I noticed a few of our residents were quietly driving their golf carts between Stone Gate Estates and Mount Brenton Golf Course. Technically, they shouldn't have been — but BC had Low Speed Vehicle legislation on the books, but few affordable qualifying cars existed back then, so the Act was rarely used.
That moment planted the seed. On September 24th, 2017, my mechanic & I drove the same route in a vintage Dynasty electric car — fully legal with ICBC coverage under a grandfathered NZEV provision. It proved that clean, low-speed electric transportation was already available for BC roads. The legislation was already in place — it was just waiting for the political will to apply it.
Dave Haberman
This concept isn't new. Sun City, America's first master-planned community was built around golf carts. Del Webb opened Sun City January 1, 1960. In 1962, Time Magazine recognized him as the "father of the low-speed vehicle movement". The Modified Golf Cart has since evolved into the Neighbourhood EV of today.
I'm a retired land developer with experience in building seniors housing projects. My Chemainus home is a custom factory built modular, from 2020, featuring solar roof panels, Level 2 EV charging and V2H (vehicle to home) technology, and more.
September 2025, our team set up a booth at the Everything Electric Expo in Vancouver — Canada's largest clean energy event. We ran a rail corridor information campaign gathering information from the public. Every single person we spoke to knew of the old E&N railway line, but not one of them believed it would ever run again.
Dave Haberman, Dave Bodig, Darren Anderson
I'm based at 8662 Trans-Canada Highway on the Chemainus River, in the heart of the Cowichan Valley, an area famous for its organic farmland.
The Dynasty Electric Car Corp was a short-lived Kelowna-built Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle. In 2001, the Dynasty qualified as a road-legal Low Speed Vehicle in 47 US states, BC and Quebec. It plugs into a standard 120-volt outlet, costs about 2 pennies per km to run, and has a 50-km range — perfect for most daily use.
I drove a BYD Extended Range EV truck up from Mexico to demonstrate the technology coming out of China. A follow-up sourcing trip would allow my team to identify and secure qualifying Neighbourhood Zero Emission EVs for our proposed pilot.
Dave Haberman