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I’ve was never a big vanity plate type of person, but years ago my wife got me custom plates with my company name on them for a Father’s day present and my old Acura MDX sported them for years. When I got my Model S I transferred the plates over:
Now that i’m moving on to different things it’s time for me to change the plates (plate actually since I don’t sport a front plate) to something else.
Tesla Vanity plates
The Tesla community has been quite creative with vanity plates and Teslarati has a great post showcasing a number of them. Tesla owners like @TeslaPittsburgh have come up with some cool ones like “PlugR In”:
Sometimes the plates are statements about living with an electric vehicle (AMPED), others are support for Tesla or Elon (L♥TESLA), or anti oil/gas/pollution (LOL OIL) type statements.
Fortunately the Motor Vehicle department in the various states keep most of the harsh ones off the cars but there are a few like “EFF OIL” out there…
Vanity Plate Directions
As I looked at all the different options, it seemed like like I could go a few different ways on this one:
- Go with a standard issue plate — just give up the vanity plate and save a few bucks ($50/year). This is the cheap and easy route.
- Go with the special Massachusetts Electric Vehicle (EV) plate. This plate is meant to indicate to first responders that there’s high voltage in the car and they need to take special precautions. Presumably this is because they’re still not that common and first responders need to be careful but it could also be seen as a ding in that that EVs are dangerous. This plate type is free and stands out from a regular plate:
- A vanity plate somehow representing the brand i’ve built here on the blog and on twitter around Teslaliving.
Note: Each state has their own rules around vanity plates. In MA vanity plates can be up to 6 characters, they can’t have mixed letters/numbers or any punctuation. So “WATT UP” is not possible, it has a space and would be 7 characters long.
- A vanity plate along the lines of what other owners have done in support for Tesla, EVs or the green/anti-pollution side of things.
The short List of vanity plates
I trolled the Tesla and TMC forums and came up with a list. I ended up with almost 40. Some are ones other owners (in other states) have used, some were derivatives of those and some were new ones I came up with. With the family we whittled it down to our top 10 (not in order):
- AMPED – Used by some other owners but a favorite of mine
- GO CART – I always feel like I’m driving a go cart with regenerative braking
- NITE RDR – Couldn’t help adding this one. KITT is one someone else has too
- OUTA GAS – I’m not big on oil bashing but this one caught my eye
- TLIVNG – Teslaliving — my brand
- TLVNG – Teslaliving — my brand
- WATTS UP – Too many characters but I like the cheerfulness of this one
- WEQVA – The geek in me, 1 WATT = 1 Volt x 1 Amp, W = VA.
- WRTH IT – Everyone knows the Model S is expensive. But its worth it!
- WT FRUNK – The front trunk or frunk is quirky, this one is cute but perhaps not always appropriate.
Several of the above are 7 characters so i’d have to adjust/tweak them and try to retain the meaning.
Decision time
Im bouncing this list off my family, friends and some people in the Tesla community including my twitter followers via a poll, and you!
Which way do you think I should go? Drop me a note in the comments below.
Do you have a vanity plate? What is it? Whats the story behind it?
Don’t have a Tesla yet? If you got one, what plate would you be sporting?
I’ll let you all know what I end up going with. Stay tuned.
Mine is EVOLVD (for ‘evolved’, because I’m limited to 6 characters). I like that it has EV in it and of course, the Tesla truly is the next step in automotive evolution. My second choice was KIX GAS… because ‘GAS’ could be interpreted a second way… if the G became an A… The Tesla truly Kicks both! I bought my car to prove that EV’s are practical, stylish and fast, so I decided EVOLVD spoke more to those ideas than my alternate choice. If I was younger, my choices would have likely been reversed!
For what it’s worth, my shortlist also included PLG ZEN (plugs in, or plug Zen), AMP RGE (amperage or amp rage), AMP ETR (amp eater) and DSRPTV (disruptive technology). And of course, ‘AMPED’ which was surprisingly still available here!
Good luck with narrowing your ideas down – it wasn’t easy! 😉
Cool ideas! Love EVOLVD. Definitely a tough choice
My “S” is ‘SUN RUN’…. because it is. 15KW solar at home. Others could be SUN RUNR, WAKEUP, SIMPLE, BREATHE, HEALTHI, NOTOX………
Good one. I have a 17.5kW system from @SolarCity hadn’t thought about that angle.
I had a vanity plate on my Benz before I got the Tesla. It was a play on the car’s color — “BORDOH” for Bordeaux Red. Many people liked that plate because it was a bit of a puzzle and fun to solve (for those who did). So I thought of keeping it for my multi-coat red Tesla, but decided not to — the Tesla color was not bordeaux red, for one thing. I drew up a list of other vanity plates I could use for the Tesla, somewhat like what you did, but could not settle on one that really resonated. I went with the EV plate, which is distinctive in its own way. Plus it saves me a little bit of money compared to the vanity plate (not enough to really matter, I suppose).
Oh… I thought perhaps you were paying homage to Bridget Bardot the very beautiful French cinema actress… sigh.
The MA EV plate is nice an simple. “SIG RED” would be cool one if you had a sig car of that color. Love the sig red on the Tesla, the normal red not so much,
“GAS GONE” vs “GAS NONE”. I went with “…gone” on my Virginia plate. But check with your State DMV if you have to use letter “O” vs number “0”.
Here in MA we have to start with 2 letters and then can’t mix letters and numbers. We can end with numbers but they can’t get inserted in the middle.
I was tempted to go with SIN GAS. I think it would work in the US where everyone knows a bit of Spanish.
Cool, even if you don’t know spanish it plays well!
Haha. Spot on.
I went with KCKD GAS since I could only do 8 characters. With 9 I would have done KICKD GAS. My second choice was WATT FUN, which is what I named my car.
Im always cautious that I may offend people. Not sure if the people at my Church would be offended or amused. I think its funny and cute, but better safe than sorry for me.
LOWCO2 as the car is not just about performance or price. Not a fun vanity platen, but an important message
Good one. Theres an ongoing war of people saying Teslas get powered from the grid and the grid is coal etc powered so they’re not really that low CO2. But if you choose your supplier or have Solar power (like I do) you do reduce emissions.
I think you should go with one of the two Tesla Living variants. My plate is an early Connecticut 2 Letter 1 Number plate which has been in handed down in the family since 1909. BTW, my P90D is getting close to being built and I should have it in Late March or Early April…. It will wear that early plate.
I am partial to the Tesla Living brand ? A very short one of 3 characters would be very cool. I didnt look at very short variants.
I’m in Australia so plate config is a bit different. I drew up quite a list but ended up going with MY 01 EV.
The international plates have different rules. In MA I wouldn’t be allowed to put numbers in the middle or have spaces like that.
In Sydney, Australia, you can purchase custom plates with up to 6 characters. Any letter number combination for $440pa or fit with a predetermined format for $100 pa. It’s worth finding something that fits the format to save $340 a year! Check out myplates.com.au if you’re interested.
I think I’d like LOLOPEC or F OPEC 🙂 Those will probably be taken by the time I get my Tesla though…
I’d be worried about some oil lover keying my car or getting too much negative attention.
Sad to see the Nasuni plate go. My favorite is your brand, some form of Tesla Living. TSLA LVN
just ordered my plate in CA for my soon to be delivered CPO P85+: NRGISED
(energized).
Nice!
NO ICE = NOICE (or how they say NICE in SE Australia)
I just ordered my plate in Ma for my Model 3 that I am waiting for: TSLAM3
Good one, congrats!