Patent ID: 8005586

Claim:
An electric golf cart arranged to be powered by a motor supplied with electric power from a battery, the electric golf cart comprising: a travel distance calculator arranged to calculate a travel distance over which the electric golf cart has traveled; a memory arranged to store pre-generated mapping data defining a relationship between the travel distance of the electric golf cart and a number of rounds of golf on a golf course that the electric golf cart has traveled; a discharge calculator arranged to calculate a battery discharge; a discharge-per-unit-round calculator arranged to calculate a discharge-per-round of the battery based on the battery discharge obtained by the discharge calculator and the number of rounds of golf on the golf course the electric golf cart has traveled, the number of rounds of golf on the golf course the electric golf cart has traveled being calculated based on the travel distance obtained by the travel distance calculator and the pre-generated mapping data; a maximum battery capacity calculator arranged to calculate a maximum battery capacity of the battery based on the battery discharge calculated by the discharge calculator and a current-voltage characteristic mapping data of the battery; and a remaining battery capacity calculator arranged to calculate a remaining battery capacity of the battery based on the maximum battery capacity and to calculate the number of rounds of golf on the golf course that the electric golf cart can travel with the remaining battery capacity of the battery based on the remaining battery capacity and the discharge-per-round of the battery calculated by the discharge-per-unit-round calculator; wherein the maximum battery capacity is updated and stored in the memory when the remaining battery capacity reaches a predetermined threshold value.