Tony Stewart knows a thing or two about getting behind the wheel of an elite vehicle. So when the NASCAR driver and team owner had the chance to partner with MadJax’s new MadJax XSeries, he wanted to see the goods.

 

When he did, he was impressed.

 

“It’s really the best of both worlds – it’s aesthetically pleasing and the craftmanship and quality of parts are second to none,” said Stewart, whose Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing (TSR) and 10-Time World of Outlaws (WoO) NOS Energy Sprint Car Series Champion Donny Schatz has partnered with XSeries for the 2023 season.

“As a racer, my expectation is to always get behind the wheel of a vehicle that has power and acceleration. The MadJax XSeries does not disappoint. There’s no comparison between the MadJax XSeries and anything else on the market – they’ve really moved the bar in a big way. When I’m on my property in Indiana, I need a golf car that I can rely on to handle the terrain and provide me a longer run time while not having to worry about constant maintenance. I’ve been waiting for a cart like the MadJax XSeries for a long time and I can say that it was well worth the wait. I hope to be able to show off the MadJax XSeries at the racetrack, on the course and on my property soon.”

That sounds good to the folks at MadJax and parent company Nivel. Long known as a leader in after-market parts and accessories, MadJax is jumping into the new vehicle market in a big way with the XSeries. It’s a journey that was decades in the making, with a fast acceleration over the past year. But Nivel has the people to pull that off.

“It really starts with the market,” says Donnie Jouppi, Nivel’s president of PTV. “Just over 12 months ago we stepped back and thought: what’s the next step for Nivel? What’s the market telling us?”

They looked at the past several years, the market earthquake of Covid, the shift to new vehicles and the significant influx of new brands to the market.
“It really just makes a lot of sense to take the innovation of our engineers and roll it into a full-vehicle solution,” Jouppi said.

With this new solution comes something else – a laser focus on the needs of dealers. Before joining Nivel about a year-and-a-half ago, Jouppi was a dealer for more than a decade.

“I was able to bring a different perspective to the table in many cases,” he said. In particular, the perspective of the dealer. With the Nivel team on the case, a great technical product was already a given. They’ve also created a dealer program that’s attractive and builds a solid foundation.

“We can build great products,” Jouppi said. “We have an incredible engineering team. When it comes to the dealer side of the business, we saw an opportunity to differentiate by providing best-in-class dealer support.”

MadJax’s go-to market strategy for the XSeries is a dealer-first approach. That manifests itself in many different ways – everything from collateral to showroom displays to a dealer portal where dealers can seamlessly order XSeries golf cars and accessories, register warranties and download collateral such as brochures and tech manuals.

“Overall it’s how you support the dealer that will really drive the success,” he says. “At the end of the day, nothing happens until the dealer sells a vehicle.”

Jouppi reckons dealers will be able to sell plenty of these. The XSeries golf cars will incorporate many things that MadJax is already known for – the Storm body, the premium seats, the top-of-the-line suspension systems, the details that catch the eye. Dealers, he said, will be “able to put that vehicle on the floor that is a new vehicle, but also a custom vehicle – dealers can choose their body color, seating options, lift kit, tire and wheel combos and more.

“We have a lot of engineering capability within the business. We’re able to leverage all that knowledge and put it into one package.”

And then they’re going to help dealers sell that package.

They’re committed to taking out the process’s friction points.

“In many cases, what is extremely hard for us is absolutely the best thing to do for the customer,” Jouppi says. Even if it’s hard, they push to make it happen because that’s what best.

“We put the extra effort in to take those friction points out all along the way,” he says. “We’ll continue to do that. The driver of this, and I can’t stress this enough, is how to we support the dealers all the way from beginning to end.”

The result? More people getting the chance to drive absolute state-of-the-art golf cars. Take Tony Stewart’s word for it.

“I’ve had the opportunity to drive a variety of golf cart brands in my career, and the reliability and power the MadJax XSeries carts offer definitely set the brand apart,” he said. “Passion is such a huge part of everything we do, and we see that same type of passion in the team at Nivel and MadJax. It was a natural fit when we decided to work together this season as we have a lot of similar goals, mindset and approach.”