Trouble In Mass. For ZAP EV Owners

This from Wired Mag:

You might want to think twice about buying a car from troubled ZAP. If you can actually manage to get a product from them, and if it actually lives up to its advertising, there’s still a chance you might not even be able to register it legally where you live.

According to the Quincy, Massachusetts’ Patriot Ledger, ZAP Xebra owners in Massachusetts received letters from the Registry of Motor Vehicles informing them that their diminutive electric vehicles were neither motorcycle nor car, leaving them in RMV limbo. Of course, this means the owners who already paid sales tax and registry fees ended up having their plates revoked, unable to operate their Xebras on public roads in the Bay State.

Like in the days of the archaic blue laws, Massachusetts once again has lived up to its reputation as the regulatory equivalent of Dean Pritchard. Only Kentucky still bars low-speed electrics from public roads, and their governor is considering issuing an executive order to legalize them.

“We’ve invested money, spent time and now something that is better for the environment is sitting in the garage. It drives me crazy,” Xebra owner Kathy Doyle told the Ledger. The plug may not be pulled forever, though, as bipartisan legislation has already been filed to put the cars back on the road — similar to recent legislation in Ohio. Current owners may see their cars depreciate, though, because the state legislature only has a few days before its formal session ends.

The Registry says that the cars should not have been registered because they do not meet federal safety standards. Anyone who has ever driven in Massachusetts knows that safety standards are of the utmost importance, but ZAP users contend they only use their cars on short, low-speed trips around town (and with a real-world range of 25 miles at 30 mph, they may not have a choice).

At least the commonwealth is being consistent. If you shipped an Alfa Spider stateside and can’t register it because it hasn’t passed U.S. safety checks, why should you be able to drive around in a Xebra that’s slightly more resilient than the cardboard box (stamped “Made in China”) it was mailed in? Still, there’s something hypocritical about Massachusetts embarking on a quest to turn the bluest of states into the greenest of states, yet barring one of the few all-electric cars currently in production due to a bureaucratic hurdle.