Staff Writer

If you’re familiar with Old House Parts in Kennebunk, last summer you may have seen owner Tom Joyal driving around a unique set of wheels — a new type of vehicle that you haven’t seen much of in Maine, because as it stands now, you can’t legally drive one in this state. 

Joyal purchased and registered his ZAP Xebra Electric Truck — a three-wheel truck that runs up to 25 miles on one charge — last spring, only to receive a letter from the state Aug. 7 revoking his registration because the vehicle couldn’t pass registration as a motorcycle. 

“I couldn’t believe the reason – it didn’t have handlebars, it had a steering wheel instead, so I couldn’t legally drive it,” Joyal said. 

Seeing someone in his district struggling to comply with Maine law spurred State Rep. Gary Connor (D-Kennebunk) to propose an amendment to Maine’s vehicle registration law and inspection guidelines to encompass “autocycles.” 

The bill, which went before the legislature in a public hearing Feb. 5, defines an autocycle as an enclosed motorcycle having no more than three wheels in contact with the ground and meets general motorcycle inspection standards, excluding those that do not apply due to the design of the vehicle, such as having a steering wheel instead of handlebars. 

Since its inception in 1994, ZAP — a leading manufacturer of electric vehicles — has sold more than 100,000 vehicles with retail prices starting at $12,000 in 75 countries, but only 40 U.S. states have made provisions to allow this type of vehicle on their roads, Connor said. 

Massachusetts was one of the most recent states to adopt a bill to allow the low to medium speed electric vehicles to be registered as motorcycles, and with Connor’s bill, Maine could be next.

“This bill is the opportunity for Maine to play a little catch up,” Connor said. “No one spoke in opposition of the bill Thursday.”

The electric truck that Joyal has would fit under the umbrella definition in the proposed bill and would allow him to drive in town, saving his business money in the long run.

“It’s great for me. I shove my tools in back and take it to a job site or drive back and forth to the post office. I only drive 12 to 25 miles a day with it and it only goes 40, maybe 45 miles per hour downhill,” Joyal said of the few months his vehicle was legally registered. “It roughly costs a penny a mile so this summer when gas was up to $4 a gallon, it was $12 a day I was saving.”

 Currently, Maine allows people to operate mopeds without a motorcycle license or a helmet, and Joyal questioned if the state thinks mopeds are safer than his enclosed truck.

In a letter from ZAP Director Gary Starr to Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap dated Aug. 14, Starr said the state allows three-wheel, low horsepower “parking control vehicles” to be operated by law enforcement for parking control.

“Maine allows three-wheel gas vehicles for police law enforcement with steering wheels — are they unsafe?” Starr asked. 

“Basically the law completely excludes my truck,” Joyal said. “And to my knowledge ZAP is the only one of its kind, so the state essentially doesn’t want any of these vehicles on the road.”

Joyal spent nearly 10 hours in Augusta last Thursday supporting the bill, and said he hopes this new law permitting this type of vehicle on Maine roads would prompt more residents to invest in the “green” vehicle. 

Connor expected the bill to be discussed further Thursday, after The Post deadline.

“We need to recognize the importance of having clean vehicles on road and reducing reliance on foreign oil,” Connor said.