ZAP, the maker of three-wheeled electric vehicles, is running into trouble in many states because motor vehicle officials are claiming they don't qualify as either cars or motorcycles, the Associated Press is reporting. As a result, owners are being forced to turn in their plates, and the DMV is refusing registration requests to others. "The ZAP is neither fish nor fowl," said Garry Hinkley of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Here's the problem, using Maine as an example: ZAP vehicles can't pass inspection as motorcycles because they have steering wheels instead of handlebars, the report said. And you can't register a car unless it has four wheels.

"We're not doing this just to be mean or bureaucratic," Hinkley said in the article. "There are very legitimate issues of highway safety when introducing slower-speed vehicles into the traffic mix. In the interest of highway safety, we're moving slowly." Autopia is reporting, meanwhile, that the same thing is going on in Massachusetts.

I say if you're going to experiment, stick with the company's expensive plug-in conversion kits for now. I'm a fan of the Xebra idea, but for a car that AutoblogGreen quoted a reviewer describing it as "poorly assembled, slow, short range and dangerous," I don't think this is a huge loss.

(Image credit: AutoblogGreen)