I've had a couple of trikes -- one weighed about 250 lbs, the other about 180. You can pedal anything if you work the gear reduction right. Granted, my top speed in those things has been about 5-7 mph, but you don't really need to go fast.

All art cars are registered. If it has a seat and a motor it needs to be registered with DMV ahead of time.

That said, there are exceptions. Have you contacted DMV- what do they say?

Personally, I think it would be OK, and I mention the technical points as a cautionary tale. I volunteered at DMV a couple of years ago and they were interested in regulating motorized (gas and electric) vehicles that carried passengers. Your trike with a front electric hub is in the grey area. It's not going to be too fast, but you'd be surprised how out of control those things are when overloaded, underlit and piloted by someone who is a little drunk. a 500lb vehicle hurts when it taps another bike or pedestrian.

How are you planning to charge or fuel the motor? Generator at your camp?

I saw many goped riders eat shit because they hit a dune at night while drunk. broken collarbones and road rash. A few collisions with bikes and pedestrians and even art installations. The playa speed limit is 5mph max. The only exceptions are emergency and other first responder vehicles. (and larrys golf cart). I rangered in 2007 and was on the Intercept Team, catching up with huge art cars doing much more than 5mph, reminding them to keep it reasonable ,and be glad they are talking to a ranger and not BLM or sherrifs- someone who would impound their car and take away their default world licence and face possible arrest because of alcohol in the driver compartment.

just cover your ass with the registration details of making your trike a little more convenient. Talk to DMV. If they feel it's a grey area out of their control, then yer good. If they want to provide you a sticker, then take it.

She is almost ready! I have two brackets to weld on and...<cough> one broken weld to repair. After getting the third seat on I loaded up three peeps and started rolling around...I heard a pop but couldn't figure out what happened for a long time when I notice that my wheel was moving more to the right than the left...I had a piss poor weld on the pivot point of my steering (where both heim joints mount) and it broke so the assembly was tweaking inboard while steering. Nice that it wasn't a catastrophic failure and nice that it happened at home and not on the playa! I will be grinding that out tomorrow and rewelding it...I figure about three more hours of welding then I start the disassembly process for painting...I hate painting. Oh I added a gusset to the fork tube...you can see it in this pic.
people.tribe.net/1980d609-...c28ce0ae95
I really wanted a little extra insurance on the fork assembly... Stirling :)