It could get a little cheaper to buzz around Utah streets in miniature electric cars if state lawmakers embrace a bill that the House Transportation Committee unanimously passed Thursday.

HB238, by Rep. Johnny Anderson, R-Taylorsville, would strip away requirements for odometers, speedometers and brakes on all four wheels of low-speed electric vehicles. The tiny cars and trucks -- effectively tricked-out golf carts -- max out at 25 mph and are allowed only on Utah streets with low posted speed limits.

Those items don't come standard on the vehicles, Anderson said, and they add $1,200 to the cost. The vehicles have brakes on two wheels and because of their weight can go from top speed to a dead stop in 12 feet.

"If Utahns want to purchase these vehicles they shouldn't pay more than their neighbors in Colorado or Idaho or anywhere else," Anderson told the panel.

South Jordan police fear that lowering the price will put more of the vehicles on the road and increase the risk of accidents between them and heavier vehicles, city spokesman Chip Dawson told the committee.

"These are going to be competing for road space with other vehicles," he said.

Committee members said the vehicles are legal, though, and they see no reason to jack up the price with unnecessary government mandates.

The real danger on the roads comes from larger vehicles that are speeding, said Rep. Michael Morley, R-Spanish Fork. Small electric vehicles could take some of those cars off the road and would pollute less.

"It seems to me that we would want to allow these types of vehicles for a lot of reasons," Morley said.