Correct. Paper plates would not be acceptable. The cashier needs to see an "ELECTRIC VEHICLE" license plate in order to give you this benefit.
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The letter of the law states that you have to have an EV plate affixed to get this benefit, however, I'm willing to bet that a meter maid will know it's an electric vehicle and isn't going to write a ticket on your VIN and pass you by. Keep in mind that the free metered parking is 2.5 hours or the max time of the meter (whichever is greater).
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
I agree 100% with StephenM. And you have to accept that different parking enforcement officers are going to possibly view your registration status or even a fully registered but with non-EV plate differently. You being a Tesla owner, fully presumes you to be smarter
than the average ICE driver, so I am confident you already know that no one can assure you that while one officer is going to let you by and two others are going to ticket you. There's always the "even if", even if we had testimonials from dozens that they didn't get a ticket, an officer could ticket you anyway, right? I think it all comes down to the question, 'got time for a visit to court to argue your side, if you have to".Most of the parking attendants ask you to write down the plate # on the ticket, so I would say the chances are 50/50 that you'll get by with the paper temporary plate. Before, the attendants at the lots paid much closer attention to the free EV parking. Now I notice they don't really care anymore; half the time they don't even check the plate camera in the booth to see if what I write matches.
At other places (Blaisdell, Kaimuki municipal parking, stadium), they don't even care enough to check what you write. When I got my 3, I didn't have my real plates yet, so I just wrote down my old info from my X plates when I had to. You can pretty much write down anything you want, except for the airport where they have cameras to show the booth attendant the rear plate.
For years, I’ve been paying for parking at the Kaimuki Municipal lot (ProPark), not realizing it’s free for EVs! Recently, the credit card terminals weren’t working, so when I drove up to the booth, the attendant said “EV? Just write your license plate on the back of the ticket.” DOH! Well, at least now I know!
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Sorry. We wish you had known. I know it doesn't make you feel any better, but legislature is making noise to take it away from us. Of course we hope not. But the end could be coming sooner than we expected. Expected? Yes, we all recognize that the entire point of free airport parking for EVs is to encourage the adoption of EVs. So as some point (we don't know when) the legislature will have decided enough is enough and pass legislation that will remove it. So take advantage while it's there.
thetravelingdr
Member
DANG IT! Just got The Millennium Tesla (My new white Model 3) and was in a rush to drive it to the airport tonight for the 6 night trip tonight right after work. Only paper plates, just picked it up 12/30. Not sure I want to chance it and come back to the $90 bill (That's how much it normally is right? $15/day), if I can't sweet talk the cashier. Could I just put down maybe my Tesla VIN number on the back of the ticket, shouldn't that be as legitimate? I should definitely be able to get my license plates available for my next trip end of the month, I would hope.
Grrr...I was so hoping to not take a dang Uber/shuttle this time. What to do, what to do...
I almost want to use myself as the trial run for the Hawaii Tesla community to see if this will work, because this is probably gonna be a pretty common question coming up.
thetravelingdr
Member
Just a quick update...I got back to the airport after my 1/2 - 1/8 HNL-LAX trip, curious if my paper plates would hold up getting out for free. Nice local lady/cashier recognized my Tesla 3 was EV and asked me to write my Name, Phone #, and License Plate. Since I didn't have one, and felt bad making one up, I wrote out my entire VIN number out. She looked at it funny, said "Oh you have only temporary plates?" and then I admitted I did but I would get real plates as soon as possible. She didn't seem to care, just punched/wrote something in somewhere, and waved me through...Saved me $108!
I have another 1-night trip for a Maui wedding this wkd and a longer 12-day trip to SE Asia probably end of this month, which will be my last trips before I hopefully get my license plates/real registration sent to me by Tesla (Side Note: How long did it take most Hawaii people to get their EV plates/real registration paperwork after pickup?). Hopefully people continue to be kind, especially for my longer trip
Will keep updating...I don't think this free EV parking will last for long! My just best guess is that as the EV usage/ownership continues to climb and climb, the state will just clamp down and finally revise the statute...Probably within the next 2 years max. Hopefully there's some way to ensure/petition to leave SOME free parking incentive (like 1-2 nights of free parking per ticket per EV car...or more?)
If it looks like the end is near sometime in the future, I'd be happy to set up a petition & collect signatures/try to contact whoever is sponsoring the bill to try to get it amended. Something is better than nothing!
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Write your representative. And write Sen Gabbard. He's mainly responsible for many of the EV perks we get. (He drives a Leaf.)
I've averaged about 6-7 weeks from delivery until I received my real metal plates (via Fedex) on my 3 vehicles. I would guess there's going to be a bit of a backlog though because of the year end push. Just keep in mind that unlike normal car dealers, Tesla processes your plates via a mainland office and ships them direct to your registered address via Fedex. I was never notified prior to shipment by Tesla, and the only way I knew they were coming was via the MyFedex app alert telling me I had an incoming shipment.
I just came back from a 5-day trip to Japan (meter showed $90 owed until she zeroed it out). I've noticed that it is getting harder and harder to find an open stall at the airport. With EV ownership on the rise, this was inevitable. The EV perks are doing the job that was intended, to increase EV ownership, and the end of the perks will follow. Considering that there has already been some bills introduced to end this program early, I would be shocked if they extended the perks beyond the original drafting of the bill (June 30, 2020).
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/bills/GM1271_.PDF
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/bills/GM1271_.PDF
dsmith2189
Active Member
I am just hoping that they change the definition of EV to be 100% electric. (no hybrids
)
Polly Wog
Member
Just a reminder to those that may not know, but it doesn't matter if you have a 100% Electric Vehicle, you need the EV plates to officially get the free airport parking. I've left my Model S (personalized plate) at the airport a couple of times, and always had to pay. The booth attendant always knew that it was an electric vehicle, but they clearly said that I needed to have official EV plates to get the free parking. That is actually one of the reasons we got the EV plates for our Model 3 - so we can get the free airport parking.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Makes sense. Years ago when we started talking about EV perks we learned to insure we lived up to our end of qualifying for the perks, we had to have the EV tag displayed. Any one benefiting from EV perks and not displaying an EV tag is just plain lucky and fortunate that some clerk or attendant is not following the letter of the law.
Just got my plates today. Took about 5-1/2 weeks but I was probably the the very beginning of the end of year push.
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