Green number plates

[spartanheed]

The official new electric car registration plate.

Hideous

 

[ParHunter]

Yeah the colours clash a bit. I don’t mind my green number plates because I have a grey M3. I reckon it would clash on a red or blue one.

 

[26ct2143]

View attachment 632521
The official new electric car registration plate.
Hideous

Can you just buy the GB bit to stick on?
Then I could go to france without buying whole new plates.
Anyone got a link for someone selling the GB bit

 

[Obliter8]

If anyone is interested, after brute force and judicious filing, voila!

 

[kriscii]

I’ll be receing my M3 in March. As Tesla won’t assign my cherished plate beforehand, I will need to have this changed over afterwards. How am I best going about getting new plates made up? Should I get in touch with the Dartford service centre with my V778 and get some aluminium plates made up?

Picking up in March from Thorpe Park and they said bring my V788 and they would make them there. Probably the easiest thing to do.

 

[Cardo]

Picking up in March from Thorpe Park and they said bring my V788 and they would make them there. Probably the easiest thing to do.

That’s what they told me when I got in touch with UK sales. Bring my V788 and they’ll make some up, however need to drive away on the original plates.

 

[RedMod3]

That’s what they told me when I got in touch with UK sales. Bring my V788 and they’ll make some up, however need to drive away on the original plates.

Southampton would not make my plates up, so I ordered a set from amazon for £15 and put my plates on after. The number on my profile is the original not current plate.

 

[Arran]

2nd Set of Green Plates arrived today. This time from ProPlates who were very happy to do a no-flag GB Green Plate.
A very different shade of Green compared to the previous plate from UKRegPlates.

Happy to finally take the GB sticker off the back, (except when travelling to Spain of-course

 

[26ct2143]

Is that an acrylic plate, does it fit easily into the plate holder?
Not too thick?
That's what I need to get for France I think.

 

[Arran]

Is that an acrylic plate, does it fit easily into the plate holder?
Not too thick?
That's what I need to get for France I think.

Yeah it's Acrylic - There's no issue getting it in at all. And all the clips at the bottom fasten without issues.

 

[Tielle]

Also the scheme is being used in Hungary since 2015, here's how green plates look on a Model S.

They are also considering free parking and driving in the bus lane for those with a green plate.

I’m colourblind, and that still looks awful.

 

[26ct2143]

I’m colourblind, and that still looks awful.

Yeah that orange section is particularly bad

 

[Kenners]

Anyone gone for a green wrap yet?

 

[MrBadger]

This post from @Mark-R has potentially opened a Pandoras box. Having approached two major suppliers of number plate materials, it looks like they each have different interpretations of whether the green stripe needs to be retroreflective. Tennants say that their green flash meets the regulations even though some plates supplied using Tennants products have a green stripe that is not retroreflective. Jepson had to double check, but have subsequently confirmed to me that the green stripe needs to be retroreflective.

I've also included a link to the correct colour.

So two major number plate supply companies have products that meet completely different interpretation of the regulation. I guess the next stage is confirmation from whoever set the tests for BSAU 145

tl;dr if you have a number plate made up by a supplier who uses Tennants materials, depending on printing method used, the green stripe may not be retroreflective. I can confirm that * ukregplates (see follow up below) as mentioned in Marks post supply Tennants marked plates. Other supplied plates may or may not be retroreflective so best to check before ordering.

Source
PANTONE® 7481 C - Find a Pantone Color | Quick Online Color Tool | Pantone for correct colour

Number Plates - Tennants UK

For over 50 years we have provided the industry with ways to make Number Plates, now you print them yourself or get them made for you.

www.tennantsuk.com

Jepson & Co Ltd - Number Plate Manufacturer - Jepson & Co

Jepson & Co Ltd, the oldest number plate manufacturer in the UK. Based in Sheffield, supplying number plate components and printing systems to the trade within the UK and in Europe. The Made in Sheffield Manufacturer of the Year 2018.

www.jepsonandco.com

The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) (Amendment) Regulations 2020

These Regulations amend the Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001. Regulation 3 amends regulation 16, to introduce the legal requirements for the option for an eligible vehicle and trailer, being towed by an eligible vehicle, to display a green coloured plate or other...

www.legislation.gov.uk

Amendment of the Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001​

2. The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001(2) are amended as follows.

3. In regulation 2 (interpretation: general), in the definition of the expression “registration plate” replace “16(3) and (4)” with “16(3), (4), (4A), (4B) and (4D)”.​

​

4. In regulation 16—​

​

(a)after paragraph (4) insert—​

​

“(4A) Subject to paragraph (4B), an eligible vehicle may display a plate or device which is green in colour.​

​

(4B) The plate or other device referred to in paragraph (4A) must be—​

​

(a)made from retroreflective material;​

(b)colour Pantone 7481c(3) or a colour match that is as close as possible to this colour;​

(c)no less than forty millimetres and no more than fifty millimetres in width.​

​

(4C) No other vehicle may display a plate or other device which is green in colour.​

​

(4D) Subject to paragraphs (5) to (8) there may be displayed on a plate or other device referred to in (4A) an arrangement of letters corresponding with one of the sub-paragraphs of paragraph (9) and an emblem corresponding with one of the sub-paragraphs of paragraph (10).”;​

​

(b)in paragraph (5) after “The” insert “plate or other device, ” and after “(4)” insert “, (4A), (4B) and (4D)”;​

​

(c)after paragraph (10) insert—​

​

“(11) In this regulation—​

​

(a)an “eligible vehicle” means a vehicle to which these regulations apply and which cannot produce any tailpipe emissions;​

(b)where the eligible vehicle is towing a trailer, paragraphs (4A), (4B), and (4D) may also apply to the plate or other device fixed to that trailer.”.​

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Transport

The regulations stipulate that the green "plate or other device referred to in paragraph (4A) must be (a) made from retroreflective material".

I ordered an EV plate from ukregplates.co.uk (they state they are DVLA registered and their plates are 'road legal'). However, the green stripe on the plate they supplied is NOT retroreflective. I subsequently ordered one from Halfords and the stripe on theirs is retroreflective. A flash photo clearly shows whether or not the green stripe is retroreflective of not:

View attachment 626095

The right half of the photo is with the flash on and the left half is without. The top plate is from * ukregplates and the bottom one is from Halfords. I have emailed ukregplates to request a refund.

I suspect most of the online plate suppliers that are offering various things in addition to the green stripe are more than likely printing the green stripe (which is what * ukregplates seem to have done). A printed stripe is unlikely to be retroreflective as it is solid green ink printed over the yellow retroreflective background. So if you are ordering a green EV plate I suggest you first ask the supplier if it is fully compliant with the regulations, and specifically is the green stripe retroreflective?

* Follow up - post edited in light of further investigation into the problem of non retroreflective green flash. ukregplates mentioned above are aware of the issue and are actively trying to resolve.

* A further follow up - this issue is now fully resolved - see Green number plates

 

[MrBadger]

Following on from my previous post, I decided not to follow up the question with the trade plates association as it might be possible that they would have wanted to protect one of their members so may not have given an unbiased answer.

So instead, I followed up with Hills Number Plates, another large reputable number plate product supplier who had nothing to gain from whatever the answer to be retroreflective or not.

tl;dr Based on Hills double checking the official regulations, its 2 to 1 in favour of the green flash needing to be retroreflective. Green flash plates based upon Hills or Jepson products the green flash is likely to be retroreflective. If based upon Tennants systems, printing methods used by some suppliers may result in the plate not being retroreflective. Please do not make my mistake and not double check this with the plate supplier prior to ordering.

As a supplier of materials, rather than a plate manufacturer themselves, I was given Number Plates | Gould Numberplates | Nailsea as a company who may be able to help me with the graphic combination that I am looking for. I have yet to follow up with them, but Hills suggested that as a supplier of aluminium plates, they may in fact be able to supply Tesla compatible spec plates. This is not a recommendation, just passing on unconfirmed information when I said that I was struggling to find a plate supplier who could do a retroreflective green stripe, with GB lettering and a coloured border. If anyone needs a bit more assistance, I was given a couple of contacts at Goulds that should be able to help - Nick or Adam.

As an aside, the impression that I got was that Halfords plates are based upon Hills products.

So, why is a retroreflective green flash important? It has been suggested that the green flash may offer future opportunities for the vehicle to be treated differently, such as discounts or access to EV only facilities. A non retroreflective green flash, when photographed in the dark, and possibly with ANPR based systems, shows as a black flash, so it is quite possible that automatic recognition of EV plates will not work as intended.

 

[Mark-R]

I'm pretty sure the Green plates I bought from Halfords in January this year are Hills plates as they share what I believe is the Hills logo i.e. HHSP (followed by the 'bsau145d' code) in a rounded black box (see pic below). My original Tesla plates also look to be Hills plates as they have this logo. And the green flash on the Halfords plates is retroreflective.

 

[nxsynjs]

How important is it to get the correct shade of green. Most websites seems to offer a green flash, but all of them seem to be a different colour.. I mean are you likely to get stopped with the "Hello Hello hello.. your plates are the wrong shade of green, go straight to jail and do not collect 200 quid"?

 

[Cardo]

How important is it to get the correct shade of green. Most websites seems to offer a green flash, but all of them seem to be a different colour.. I mean are you likely to get stopped with the "Hello Hello hello.. your plates are the wrong shade of green, go straight to jail and do not collect 200 quid"?

I’ve noticed the yellow on my rear plate seems a slightly different shade to the one on the car parked next to mine. I presume there’s a colour range that’s acceptable, rather than one very specific shade.

 

[init6]

Following on from this, I decided not to follow up the question with the trade plates association as it might be possible that they would have wanted to protect one of their members so may not have given an unbiased answer.

From the British Number Plate Manufacturers Association:

WHAT SIZE AND COLOUR IS THE GREEN FLASH?​

The green flash should be:

• colour Pantone 7481c or very similar
• between 40 and 50 millimetres in width
• retroreflective for 24 hour visibility

I’ve noticed the yellow on my rear plate seems a slightly different shade to the one on the car parked next to mine. I presume there’s a colour range that’s acceptable, rather than one very specific shade.

I presume there is a pantone colour for the front and rear plates too.

 

[Mark-R]

How important is it to get the correct shade of green. Most websites seems to offer a green flash, but all of them seem to be a different colour.. I mean are you likely to get stopped with the "Hello Hello hello.. your plates are the wrong shade of green, go straight to jail and do not collect 200 quid"?

I agree, I’m sure the police have (or should have) more important matters to deal with. But I think that misses the point. Although some UK reg plate providers say their plates are 100% legal, they are not. This problem might never be picked up, but it could result in an MOT failure (and the cost of buying legal plates) or, in the admittedly unlikely event the police were to take an interest, a £1000 fine.