Massachusetts Pulls the Plug on Zap’s EV

You might want to think
twice about buying a car from troubled ZAP. whether you can actually manage to get a product
from them, and whether 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,
MA 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, that
means the owners who already paid sales tax and registry fees ended up having
their plates revoked, unable to function 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 moment, and now something that is better for the environment is sitting in the
carport. 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,
considering the state legislature only has a few days before its formal session
ends.

The Registry says that the
cars should not have been registered considering 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
m.p.h., they may not have a choice). 

At least the Commonwealth
is being consistent. whether you shipped an Alfa
Spider stateside and can’t register it considering it hasn’t passed US 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.

Photo: Nathan Borror/Flickr

Original post by Keith Barry