Golf-Cart Storage: A New Facility Concern

Lately, we have heard from several club managers from across the country about new challenges they are facing from storing golf carts in clubhouse basements. This long-standing practice in clubhouse design and club operation is now coming into the spotlight because of the added fire hazard posed by modern lithium-ion batteries.  

A number of stories have recently surfaced of golf-cart fleets burning, including a 2023 fire that destroyed an Australian club’s entire clubhouse and was traced to a room where lithium-ion cart batteries were charging. As lithium-ion carts become the norm, two forces are quietly rewriting the rules on where and how these carts should be stored. The good news: Getting ahead of these issues is straightforward, and the steps needed to satisfy them tend to make the whole operation safer and better organized at the same time.

What’s Driving the Change

Fire and building codes are catching up. The 2024 International Fire Code, a national model code, adds Section 320, the first set of rules written specifically for storing and charging lithium-ion batteries. It, however, excludes vehicles. In addition, recent guidance from the National Fire Sprinkler Association stated that while the National Fire Protection Association’s 2022 and 2023 documents called for increased design criteria, partly in response to the more difficult fires posed by electric vehicles, the 2027 edition is expected to be even more stringent. 

These codes and other national model regulations are pushing us to address the greater risks posed by the new battery chemistry. Many jurisdictions will adopt these provisions from the national models into their local codes over the next several years.  At a minimum, expect to address the cart-storage issue with your next major clubhouse renovation.

Insurers are moving even faster. Underwriters focus on one thing above all: whether battery-powered carts are stored in or beneath a high-value clubhouse. For clubhouse rebuilds costing several million dollars, insurance carriers will increasingly expect to see fleets contained in a separate structure—or, failing that, behind a three-hour firewall. After a facility inspection, an insurer can require relocation of the carts or upgrades of the facility, backed by the prospect of non-renewal. In practice, the renewal conversation often arrives before the code does.

There have been a number of stories of golf cart fleets burning, including a 2023 fire that destroyed an Australian club’s entire clubhouse, traced to a room where lithium-ion cart batteries were charging.

The Bottom Line for Clubs

• Plan now to relocate. A purpose-built, detached cart-barn building is the most durable fix—and it frees up higher-value clubhouse space for other initiatives or purposes.
• Separate and suppress. If carts stay in the clubhouse, expect an initial expense for upgrading the structure, ventilation, temperature control, and fire-suppression systems to reduce the risk of out-of-control fires.  Also expect greater ongoing expenses related to maintenance, and to proving adequate fire separation to insurance underwriters.
• Plan ahead, and together. Fold cart storage into your Facility Master Plan or next renovation—and bring your code official and insurer in early.

Clubs that deliberately plan a proactive response to the new realities of cart storage can set their own timeline, control costs, and end up with a safer, more flexible facility—and avoid scrambling to respond to an insurance letter at renewal. Approached as an investment, rather than as a compliance chore, it’s one more way to demonstrate the careful stewardship that members expect.