Yesterday, government officials in Quebec passed an ordinance to allow neighborhood electric vehicles on the streets. Well, ok, not on just any street.

The NEVs are only allowed on roads with a speed limit of 50 kilometres per hour or less. They must have a triangular sign attached to the rear showing that it is a slow-moving vehicle. And they must not be driven on roads with a slope of 15 per cent (8.5 degrees) or higher.

For anyone familiar with NEVs, however, these regulations are pretty standard. They are commensurate with the performance capabilities of the vehicle.

This is great news for ZENN Motors Co., one of the major manufacturers of NEVs, considering that they are based in Canada. Finally, more Canadians can enjoy the pleasant bliss of a leisurely-paced electric vehicle for all their in-town needs.

Photo by Mayr. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0. Yes, I know it's not the UK.

The RAC Foundation (a UK organization dedicated to "protecting the interest of the motorist") warned that the idea of a town with a 20 mile per hour speed limit would grate many drivers, and they're right. But, the UK car supermarket group Motorpoint conducted a survey about the reduced limits and found that two in five British drivers - about 12 million people - would "welcome" a lowered speed limit in their town. We'll see if any of them move to Portsmouth to prove their point. In most American towns, after all, residential streets have 25 mph speed limits. There is a proposal from the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety to make 20 mph the mandatory standard in all residential areas in Britain in order to reduce the number of people who are killed on British roads (currently 3,100 a year).

There is also a green angle to this. We know that neighborhood electric vehicles are not the fastest cars on the block. Forcing all in-city traffic to go 20 mph would mean that NEVs can hold their own, something that should help NEV adoption rates in the UK. Press release after the jump.

How many electric vehicles will be sold in the in 2012? It's not an easy question to answer (especially when we hear news like this) but International Market Solutions (IMS) has released its fourth biannual study on the NEV, golf car and utility vehicle market. IMS calls these vehicles "the small, task-oriented vehicle market" and is trying to predict where people will be spending their money in the coming years. In the recently-released study, IMS finds that the overall market for these vehicles should grow to $5.5 billion by 2012 (up from $3.2b today) and electric vehicles "will continue to gain market share in the light duty utility and personal transportation segments reaching nearly 300,000 vehicles." More off-road EVs, AC power in golf carts and the globalization of the small vehicle industry are all components that factor into IMS' estimates. Also, note these two bullets in the announcement of the study (read the full thing after the jump):

• Substantial gains for new, privately-owned vehicle (including neighborhood electric vehicles) and utility vehicle segments, where double-digit growth is forecast;
• Increased sales of electric-powered vehicles in all segments, growing at an 11.5% clip through 2012. (Small, albeit significant inroads of electric power in the heavy duty utility vehicles are also likely.)

This study gives more credence to an attitude I've heard expressed when talking to people in the green car industry: in the coming years, the one-car-fits-all model will be replaced - at least for some people - by a right-vehicle-for-the-job model. NEVs will certainly be one of those options.

[Source: Marc C and IMS]