Electric cars legalized in Vancouver

Vancouver city council voted Tuesday afternoon to give a green light to low-speed electric vehicles.

Under city bylaws, they will now be able to travel on Vancouver streets which have a posted speed limit of 50 km per hour or less, meaning they will be able to travel on most city streets.

But staff remained concerned about the safety of the vehicles since they don't meet the crash standards for regular vehicles. They are typically larger than electric golf carts and look more like small compact cars.

Most low-speed electric cars, however, don't have impact absorbing bumpers or airbags, according assistant city engineer Jerry Dobrovolny, making them a case of buyer beware.

"That's why the federal government limits their operation to 40 kilometres [per hour] or less. And so that's a decision that each individual buyer will make for themselves," said Dobrovolny.

City staff and Vancouver police will have three years to see how the new vehicles work on city roads, and iron out any wrinkles, before reporting back to council.

The small light cars are already allowed under B.C. law to travel on roads with a speed limit of 40 km per hour or less, but are only allowed on roads with faster speed limits when municipalities vote to permit them.

The first municipality in B.C. to permit them was the Victoria suburb of Oak Bay on southern Vancouver Island.

They were also made legal on some roads in Quebec under a trial project launched in July.