Some states have laid out the red carpet for the three-wheeled electric vehicles from ZAP! by offering rebates and issuing executive orders while some states are trying to pull the rug out from under owners by invalidating their registrations. This is now the case in Maine where Xebra owner, Tom Joyal, has received a letter from the state government telling him his little electric Xebra doesn't conform to the state's motor vehicle code and that they are revoking his registration. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State says a number of vehicles, "have been brought to their attention" because people are trying to find ways of coping with higher gas prices. The owner disagrees with the states assessment and claims he is in compliance because it adheres to the definition of an autocycle.

So who is right? After meticulously combing the 251-page Maine Motor Vehicle Inspection Manual (PDF) we conclude that Mr. Joyal appears to be mostly within the boundaries of the law, though he may want to consider installing a roll bar if he wants to be sure to pass inspection. Although the law states that an autocycle is "...an enclosed motorcycle, originally manufactured as an autocycle. It is designed to have no more than three wheels in contact with the ground at any time," an inspector must reject the vehicle if it's does not have said roll bar. The office of the Secretary of State may take another look at the situation and has issued a statement saying, "We certainly want to take an opportunity to review the vehicle and the way that it is configured, see how that fits within the existing confines of state law and see what changes to make to either the vehicle or to the law to make it a viable alternative for people." We hope Mr. Joyal has a lot of patience and wish him good luck.

[Source: WCSH6]

Prospective ZAP Xebra owners in Mass. take note: your State has just revoked all of the current registrations for the electric three-wheelers. It seems that the State has just come to realize that the machines don't actually qualify as either motorcycles or cars, despite laws regulating three-wheeled vehicles as motorcycles. The hiccup is apparently the roof overhead, as the law oddly allows a single occupant under an enclosed structure, but not a driver and a passenger together. Seems a bit arbitrary, wouldn't you say? In any case, that definition is expected to be changed soon enough, though that doesn't help the owners who have already purchased the vehicles.

One Xebra owner named Ben Burnham says, ""I'm not trying to change the world. I just thought it was cool, a plus for the environment, and that I could save a couple of bucks," Burnham said. To that end, Burnham has replaced his now unregistered Xebra with a Corbin Sparrow, which passes the State's laws due to its single seat.

Related:

• Update: three-wheelers might be registerable soon in Ohio

[Source: Taunton Gazette / Photo: Greg Derr]

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, drivers in Ohio are facing problems when it comes time to register their electric three-wheeled vehicles. Most states classify three-wheelers as motorcycles, but Ohio adds one more item to their definition of a motorcycle: a saddle. This means that three-wheelers which have a normal "car-like" seat are unregisterable as a car, because they have fewer than four wheels, or a motorcycle. Two vehicles are mentioned in our source article, the ZAP! Xebra and the NmG from Myers Motors (pictured above), a company based, ironically enough, in Ohio. According to Josh Engel, chief legal counsel for the BMV, "It's not the first time that the law hasn't caught up with technology," adding that the state of Ohio is supportive of electric vehicles. Basically, the law needs to change, and Tom Hunter, communications director for the BMV, suggests that the real solution would be to classify the vehicles as neither cars nor motorcycles. A special class of vehicle would be created, and hopefully a motorcycle endorsement would not be required. We'll keep you updated if anything new comes of this issue. Thanks for the tip, Ken.

[Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer]

The world desperately needs vehicles with alternative powertrains, such as battery electrics. The potential to make a killing in the business is huge, as is the potential to lose everything. The auto industry - as anyone who has ever gotten involved in it knows - is hugely capital intensive so investors are needed. However, people tend to be unwilling to put large quantities of cash unless they see a potential return. In any new business arena there are startups who fail without drawing much attention to themselves. Unfortunately there are also those that draw inordinate amounts of attention to themselves before they ever produce anything. Those in the latter category tend to poison the investment waters for those who may actually have something real to offer.

Such is the case with Zap! and their heavily-hyped electric vehicles. The Santa Rosa, CA company has been around for quite a number of years and has actually managed to sell a number of electrical products mostly related to mobile power products. However when it comes to electric transportation, their products are limited to the Chinese built three wheel Xebra "sedan" and "truck". Wired has now pubished a detailed article on the often sordid 16 year history of Zap! and its two primary leaders Gary Starr and Steve Schneider. Schneider and Starr have apparently "built" a business on alternating press releases about world-beating new electric cars and issuing new stock to continue paying the bills, including their salaries. Meanwhile enthusiastic prospective retailers of Zap products like Ehab Youssef and Joseph Gottlieb with little experience in the realities of the car business, have plunked down large amounts of cash for the right to sell vehicles that either come nowhere near meeting their rated specifications or never materialize at all. It's a sad tale but well worth the read. For those Zap representatives that often post in the comments here, please feel free to try and refute anything you feel may be incorrect in the article - but only if you have facts to back it up.

[Source: Wired]

Paul Niedermeyer over at TTAC got the chance to drive a ZAP Xebra pickup and his review pretty much reads as you would expect. The car is poorly assembled, slow, short range and dangerous. He goes so far as to refer to it as a motorized wheelbarrow/hair-shirt - which, despite what you think of the car, is pretty funny. Was there anything that he did like about the Xebra? Nope.

We have had the opportunity to drive the Xebra, and we also found the machine to be a bit on the slow side. We also noted the small interior and poor build quality. We still maintain, though, that the vehicle is fine for what it is. If used as a vehicle to get to the grocery store, campus, library etc, it'll do fine. If you actually plan to drive the Xebra every day, or on high-speed or high traffic roads, you should look elsewhere.

[Source: The Truth About Cars]

Zap's moving to China. OK, it's just opening a new nanotechnology battery "joint development office" with Advanced Battery Technologies, Inc. (ABAT) in Beijing, the two companies announced today. The reason for opening this office is "to expand their research, manufacturing and marketing of advanced batteries for electric cars using the latest in nanotechnology."

ABAT is the company that makes the lithium-polymer and nanotech batteries that Zap recently agreed to use in their Xebra EVs and other products. The purchase agreement was for $5.168 million worth of batteries. As always, improved batteries sound great. In this case Zap and ABAT are saying the life expectancy of these batteries is over 1,000 charges, and will offer "three to five times greater performance in terms of range and speed, as well as faster charge times, in some cases as little as ten minutes." We'll be waiting for the test drive.

[Source: ZAP, Advanced Battery Technologies, Inc.]

As I mentioned after hearing Zap! chairman and co-founder Gary Starr speak at the AFVI show, Zap! is trying to plant a million trees by 2010 through the Zap! Challenge. The company recently sent out an email announcing that they have helped to plant "over 64,862 trees since launching our campaign the beginning of this year." So, in time for Earth Day this year, they'll have 65,000. Let's say 70,000 by the end of April. Carry that out and it comes to about 210,000 for the year and 840,000 by the end of 2010. Looks like they're on track, but will need to kick things up a notch or two to meet the noble goal.

While Zap! does plant 200 trees (actually, they pay someone to plant the trees) for every car they sell, they also take direct donations to cover the tree-planting costs. $25 nets us 200 trees. And, if putting your picture up on Flickr is not enough for you, Zap! says that they'll put pictures of anyone driving an EV or planting a tree up on the company website.

[Source: Zap!]

Don't think that I didn't drill the on-site ZAP representative for any information about the ZAP\Lotus APX collaboration, but, alas, he knew nothing. Is it just vapor-ware? The jury is still out on that one, hopefully more information will be coming in the next few months. Not all was lost, however, as I did come away with a gallery of high-quality images of ZAP's current production models. As you may know, they already have a series of three-wheeled vehicles for sale, including a four-door, a truck and a little Segway-like scooter. I took pictures of them and you can see them in all their electric-only glory here.

Steve Palmer is the freshest owner of a Xebra electric vehicle after submitting the winning bid of $10,800 on a recent eBay auction. While the Xebra's actual retail price is under $10,000, the squat little EVs are only sold through authorized dealers and are not available everywhere right now. Palmer said his high bid would allow him to get the Xebra faster than through the standard channels. He claimed that he "really wanted the car so my family and I could enjoy this newest technology."

What I don't fully understand is Zap's press release announcing the auction. Zap sells the Xebra in the U.S. and claimed that Palmer outbid almost eight thousand other bidders to win the car. Excuse me? Eight thousand? Since the auction has ended, the details are no longer available on the auction site, but doesn't that seem like an awful lot of people to be bidding on one of these niche cars? I mean, the Reggie Bush exclusive NFL/Rebuild New Orleans merchandise items have between 24 and 51 bids as I write this. And that's the number of bids, not bidders. Something seems odd here. But if it's true, then Zap had better get a lot of the Xebras to market pronto, is all I'm saying. We'll let you know you if Zap clears things up.

[Source: Zapworld]