TOKYO -- Yamaha Motor Co. announced a new manual drive battery type five-passenger electric golf cart with a large battery capacity.

Named the "Turf Joy G31E", the cart mounts a battery capacity of 8V by 6 cells for 48V, or enough capacity for two rounds of golf with one charging of the battery.

The Turf Joy is built on the long cabin design of the Yamaha golf car series released in January of this year, and comes with other Yamaha features like "double wishbone type suspension" providing a more comfortable ride like that of an automobile, and a slide open/close type windshield to let airflow through the cabin.

In Japan today there are approximately 2,400 golf courses, of which 90% use golf carts.