I'm not sure why EVs even need special plates, and I think Hawaii is pretty strange in that it issues special EV plates. They're just motor vehicles like all others.
Interesting. In CA, the perks come from a sticker that you apply for separately. The stickers are color coded by year of issue and tied to the VIN. They expire 3-4 years from when they were issued. So all EVs don't have the perks, only ones that the owners applied for. Any EV is eligible but once that VIN has been used for getting a sticker, it cannot be used again, so when those stickers expire, that's it for that car's lifetime.Are you not sure why, or simply don't know? We don't know what CA EV rules and benefits exist. You are at a disadvantage in not knowing the history.
From about 2010-ish (if I recall correctly) until 2020, EV plates helped Law Enforcement and Parking enforcement to recognize what vehicles the state declared were allowed certain perks. The perks being an incentive to buy non-ICE vehicles. The category included BEVs and Hybrids. In those early years 99% of the people including LEO's didn't know what a Tesla was especially that it was an EV. Some of the perks were, free parking in city/state lots, free street parking. free parking at the airport lots (really big deal to the point of abuse), travel in HOV with 1 person in the vehicle.
The laws sunset on most of those but the fed regulation that allows us travel in HOV anytime. The EV tags precludes a ticket for HOV driving. In other words, if you don't have the EV tag, you are likely to get the HOV ticket if caught. Of course you can take the time to have it over turned, but having the EV tag is easier. Now they punish us for having an EV with not simple a "don't pay gas tax" fee, but an excessive charge above what equal gas tax would have been paid.
Even with the ups and downs of perks or penalties, many/most of us still carry the EV plate because we are proud to be driving not just an EV, but the best made. I'll simply assume you believe the same.
You also need EV plates for public chargers. I tried to switch to a vanity plate and the DMV lady said I still needed them to use chargers/special EV parking.Are you not sure why, or simply don't know? We don't know what CA EV rules and benefits exist. You are at a disadvantage in not knowing the history.
From about 2010-ish (if I recall correctly) until 2020, EV plates helped Law Enforcement and Parking enforcement to recognize what vehicles the state declared were allowed certain perks. The perks being an incentive to buy non-ICE vehicles. The category included BEVs and Hybrids. In those early years 99% of the people including LEO's didn't know what a Tesla was especially that it was an EV. Some of the perks were, free parking in city/state lots, free street parking. free parking at the airport lots (really big deal to the point of abuse), travel in HOV with 1 person in the vehicle.
The laws sunset on most of those but the fed regulation that allows us travel in HOV anytime. The EV tags precludes a ticket for HOV driving. In other words, if you don't have the EV tag, you are likely to get the HOV ticket if caught. Of course you can take the time to have it over turned, but having the EV tag is easier. Now they punish us for having an EV with not simple a "don't pay gas tax" fee, but an excessive charge above what equal gas tax would have been paid.
Even with the ups and downs of perks or penalties, many/most of us still carry the EV plate because we are proud to be driving not just an EV, but the best made. I'll simply assume you believe the same.
How would they handle out of state plates? I actually thought about shipping my Tesla over to Hawaii this summer because rental car prices were through the roof, although I'm pretty sure everyone knows by now that a Tesla is an EV and therefore can park in EV spaces especially if the car is actively charging.
Well I don't think the EV plate thing is really enforced with chargers so out of state would probably be ok. Maybe it might be enforced on city/state property? There's a lot of military here so there are a lot of out of state plates (until they get their Hawaii plates). It was more for the free municipal parking.
Yay !! I'm still adding to the Oahu count. But I think they deliver 3-4X more than we see/capture. We are near 2700 recorded on Oahu. We were 7,000+ two years ago. I suspect we are more than 10,000 on Oahu now. But we need Tesla to confirm and they are pretty tight-lipped most of the time.
