The concept is very new, but we will likely be seeing a lot more of them soon. In the US, Ford has just become the first manufacturer to offer them on new cars.

The digital license plates are legal in all 50 states, as well as Canada and Mexico, but can only be sold in Arizona, California and Michigan. In those three states, digital plates are now available as an optional extra when you buy a car from Ford dealerships.

The E ink technology used for digital plates gives them a monochrome look, with users able to pick between light and dark modes. Users can also add a personal message to the bottom of their plate, under the registration itself.

Perhaps more interesting is the fact that these digital license plates have 5G data and GPS connections.

Basically, they can be connected to a smartphone app, which then alerts the owner if the vehicle is stolen, showing its real-time location. ​The plates are also designed to survive extreme temperatures and tampering by potential thieves.

An extremely rare license plate with the letters “MM” on it is currently up for sale in the state of California for $24.3 million. And because it’s still 2021, you aren’t just buying the plate, you’re also buying its matching one-of-a-kind NFT.
There are over 35,000,000 registered vehicles in the state of California, each of which has its own unique license plate with anywhere from two to seven characters. Of these, two-character plates are the rarest, especially two-character repeating plates like “MM,” according to the “MM” plate website (h/t DuPont Registry). There are only 35 two-letter plates, making this license plate literally one in a million.

“Just like NFTs, license plates are exclusive by nature, always 1 of 1,” the OpenSea listing says. “The pairing of these two rarities was inevitable. This minting has established provenance, and hopes to inspire an entire community around an aftermarket buying/selling desirable license plate configurations.”
It remains to be seen if someone will bite and spend the cash on “MM,” but if they do, they will be able to claim ownership of the world’s most expensive license plate. Currently, that honor belongs to an Abu Dhabi license plate with the number “1” which sold for $14.3 million in 2009. The most expensive one in the US is a Delaware plate with the number “11” that sold for $675,000 the year before.

​A State of California Department of Motor Vehicles report on Specialized (Specialty) License plates for 2019 reveals startling effects of how marketing may impact sales of specialty license plates.
According to the report there may be a direct impact of the amount of marketing expenditures on the actual annual revenue generated from certain specialty license plates, although the report does not comment or reveal the types of marketing that were implemented.

The Kids specialty license plate utilized 21.15% in marketing fees and generated $3,513,857.00. The Coastal (Whale Tail) tag expended 14.66% in marketing fees and generated $1,304,004.00. In comparison, the Breast Cancer Awareness license plate used 0% for marketing and collected $244,606.68 in revenue and the California Cultural/Historical Endowment (Snoopy) plate utilized 5.78% in marketing fees and collected $391,212.90 in total revenue.
Since the introduction of the Legacy plate, the retro black plate with yellow writing, there has been a significant decline in revenue for most of the other specialty license plates in California. The Legacy plate is generating in excess of $30 million total revenue annually for the Environmental License Plate Fund.

​Under current law, inmates working for PRIDE Enterprises manufactures license plates and validation stickers for DHSMV and DHSMV is not required to obtain competitive bids in order to contract them. The Legislature created Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises (PRIDE) in 1981 as a private, non-profit corporation to lease and manage the state prison industries program.
CS/HB 695 by the Tourism, Infrastructure & Energy Subcommittee and Representative Nick Duran (R-Miami) and the companion bill, SB 862, filed by Senator Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota) are being pushed by lobbyists Cory Guzzo and Jorge Chamizo of Floridian Partners on behalf of California based ReviverMX, Inc. Lobbyist compensation reports for the latest reported quarter showed that the  lobbying firm was paid $560,000 in legislative lobbying pay and another $390,000 in executive branch earnings for a combined total of $950,000, according to a summary provided by Florida Politics.  Their other clients include Avail, Florida Internet & Television, Liberty Mutual Group, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Florida Gulf Coast University, the Florida Insurance Council, Gulf Power, TECO Energy, Anheuser-Busch, HP,  U.S. Sugar, the Florida Realtors and Magellan Health.

​Senator Joe Gruters was elected to the Senate in 2018, after having served in the House from 2016-2018. He is a CPA and was educated at USF and FSU. He was reelected Florida GOP chair in January, and Sarasota County Commissioner Christian Ziegler was reelected party vice chair. He co-chaired Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign in Florida before taking over as Florida GOP chair in 2019 and helping the president carry the state in 2020.
Representative Nick Duran is a nonprofit executive director for the Florida Association of Free and Charitable Clinics and was educated at UF and New York Law School. He was elected to the House in 2016.
The Digital License Plate bill proposes to eliminate DHSMV’s current authority to evaluate alternative license plates through a pilot program and formally creates the Digital License Plate Pilot Program. Beginning July 1, 2021, DHSMV must administer the pilot program, which is limited to the installation of digital license plates on government-owned motor vehicles. By July 1, 2022, DHSMV must allow any motor vehicle registered in Florida to be equipped with a digital license plate in lieu of a physical license plate. 
The bill authorizes DHSMV to contract with one or more digital license plate providers, and DHSMV may authorize the display of a plate number and validation sticker on a digital license plate. DHSMV may authorize the use of digital license plates for toll collection, if approved by the Department of Transportation or other appropriate tolling authority, and parking permits. DHSMV may establish procedures for displaying emergency alerts, static logo displays, and other displays on the license plate. The bill defines the term “digital license plate provider” as a person or an entity engaged in the business of providing digital license plate hardware and services to motor vehicles.

​The current version of the bill now requires that, before purchasing a digital license plate, the vehicle owner must purchase a metal license plate from DHSMV and pay all applicable motor vehicle fees. The bill also provides requirements for the digital license plate and requires providers to maintain an inventory of digital license plates, make available digital versions of each specialty license plate, and update the vehicle’s registration in real time. 
The bill analyst, Johnson, assumes that most of the programming is between the digital license plate provider and the consumer, so the bill will have an insignificant impact on DHSMV expenditures. However, the bill is unclear as to whether or not DHSMV will continue collecting all existing license plate fees. The bill provides that a consumer who chooses to purchase a digital license plate must purchase it directly from the digital license plate provider. In addition to any fees associated with the purchase of the digital license plate, the consumer is also responsible for paying to DHSMV all applicable motor vehicle fees, including the annual use fee associated with any specialty license plate the consumer wishes to display on the digital license plate.
As of now, only black and white displays are available, but the company CEO claims that color versions may be available in a year or so.
According to DHSMV, the bill should have an insignificant impact on it, since the purchase of the digital license plate will be conducted solely between the digital license plate provider and the consumer. Therefore, DSHMV does not plan on programming connectivity between the proposed digital license plates and DSHMV systems and will continue with its current procedures for original and renewal license plate transactions (per Email from Kevin Jacobs, Legislative Affairs Director, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, February 25, 2021.) The bill does not appear to impact county or municipal governments.

​"We look forward to working with Reviver and the ecosystem of vehicle compliance their platform and digital license plates will provide our DMV and our citizens. The expressive nature of their digital plates provides untapped opportunities for valuable communications." said Senator Joe Gruters, (R – Sarasota), the bill sponsor. Representative Nick Duran (D – Miami) who is sponsoring the House bill, said, "Bringing digital license plates to Florida helps to pave the way into a more connected future. Florida has always been on the cutting-edge of technology and allowing the use of this technology can bring large-scale efficiency and savings to the over 17 million registered vehicles in our state."

​According to ReviverMX, Inc., the company pursuing the legislation, their digital license plates are currently available in California and Arizona, and they claim 11 other states are in various stages of adoption. Depending on the type of digital license plate, prices start at $499 plus $55 per year or $17.95 per month with a 36-month agreement. https://reviver.com/shop/ The company is currently selling Rplates through multiple channels including automotive dealerships, affinity groups such as professional sports teams and college alumni associations, and small to medium-sized commercial fleets.
A SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT was included in ReviverMX’s press release announcing the Florida legislation: ReviverMX, Inc. (The Company) has prepared and provides all of the financial and related information stated herein. The Company makes no express or implied representation or warranty as to projections, estimates, future plans, or forward-looking assumptions or statements, nor as to their attainability or the accuracy and completeness of the assumptions from which they are derived. Projections and estimates of the Company's performance are necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and may vary materially from actual results.
ReviverMX, formerly Smart Plate, Inc. was founded in 2009 and did not start selling a product until June 2018. According to the SEC EDGAR database and summary reports, the company raised $25.5 million in seed and A rounds. And a further
Reviver Auto has raised a total of $32M in funding over 5 rounds. Funding was also raised in July, 2019 from a Venture - Series Unknown round and a further %6.6M was raised last year in convertible notes from 48 investors. ViewTrade Securities, based in Boca Raton, are handling most of the fundraising..
According to PrivCo., Reviver Auto is funded by 3 main investors with ACK Group and Walden Riverwood Ventures are the most recent investors and has post-money valuation in the range of $50M to $100M as of Jan 10, 2018,  Board members include Ernst Lieb, the former CEO and President of Mercedes Benz USA, Canada and Australia.

​The latest version of the bill deleted a requirement for ReviverMX to pay $4.00 from the sale of each digital license plate to PRIDE on a quarterly basis. PRIDE Enterprises was incorporated in December 1981 and was formally established by the Legislature in 1983 to act as a private not-for-profit corporation1 operating correctional work programs in Florida’s prisons The final transfer of correctional work programs was completed in July 1984. PRIDE Enterprises does not receive funding from the Legislature and is supported by the earnings that it generates from the sale of its products and services. The DOC is required to lease buildings and land to PRIDE to operate these correctional work programs. PRIDE currently operates 35 different work programs in 21 prison correctional facilities and sells to all levels of government as well as nonstate and private entities. According to Dun & Bradstreet, annual revenue is $76.9 million.
In 2004, PRIDE’s CEO, Pamela Jo Davis, and president, John F. Bruels, were suspended by the company’s board as auditors probed loans the firm made to close affiliates. The board chairman, Maria Camila Leiva, said the board did not believe the two did anything wrong. Davis was paid by a spinoff firm and continued to be paid during her suspension, said PRIDE spokeswoman Evelyn Knight. Bruels was suspended with pay also.
In 2018, the Florida Dept of Corrections, Office of Inspector General Annual Report for FY 2017-18 showed that a Follow-up of Audit of PRIDE, found that  audit staff could not determine whether the billing process for PRIDE Accounts Receivable was accurate
An inmate may be employed by the PRIDE Enterprises or by any other private entity operating on the grounds of a correctional institution during the last 24 months of the inmate’s imprisonment. PRIDE generally pays inmates between 20 cents and 55 cents per hour, depending on their skill level and length of service. In addition, for every $1 an inmate earns, PRIDE pays 15 cents on behalf of inmates for victim restitution and transfers these payments to the department for distribution.

California may have to end most restrictions on personalized license plate language that some might find offensive, if a lawsuit filed Tuesday prevails. The libertarian Pacific Legal Foundation lawsuit challenges the state Department of Motor Vehicles' current policy on free speech grounds.
The department denied more than 30,000 of the nearly 250,000 applications submitted in 2018, the last year for which statistics are available, after deciding that the proposed language “may carry connotations offensive to good taste and decency," says the lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco.
“This broad and vague regulation requires four full-time DMV administrators police license plate applications," the lawsuit argues. Those denials “deprive plaintiffs their right to freedom of speech, in violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution."
Department officials did not immediately respond to telephone and email requests for comment.
The program brings the state more than $60 million each year. The environmental plates challenged in the lawsuit cost $53 initially and $43 annually to renew and are among 14 special interest license plates that help pay for environmental and special programs.
The lawsuit comes months after another federal judge rejected the department's argument that vehicle license plates constitute government statements, ruling that it is unlikely that “viewers perceive the government as speaking through personalized vanity plates.”
In that challenge filed by the same nonprofit legal organization, the department subsequently allowed California soccer fan Jonathan Kotler to honor his favorite team with the vanity plate “COYW.” Kotler supports London-based Fulham, whose fans often chant “Come On You Whites” for their players in white jerseys. “Upon further administrative review, the DMV determined Mr. Kotler's personalized plate request for ‘COYW' should not have been rejected and is expediting the approval to get it to Mr. Kotler as quickly as possible,” Anita Gore, a deputy director with the DMV, wrote in an email on Tuesday. The DMV had previously told Kotler “COYW” has “connotations offensive to good taste and decency.”

​But the department didn't change its underlying policy, which the new lawsuit seeks to end on the grounds that the First Amendment doesn't allow the government to ban speech just because it finds it offensive.
“We probably wouldn't challenge a regulation limited to seven obscene words, but it strains credulity to say that there are over 30,000 messages per year, ranging from sports cheers (COYW) to someone's nickname (OGWOOLF) that need to be banned," foundation attorney Wen Fa said in an email exchange. “As the DMV's regulation underscores, vague bans on ‘offensive' speech inevitably lead to arbitrary results.”
The OGWOOLF plate was sought by the firm's lead plaintiff in the new lawsuit, Army veteran Paul “Chris” Ogilvie of Concord, California. He says it combines the first two letters of his last name with an old nickname. The department rejected the plate for fear people would interpret OG as short for “original gangster,” the lawsuit says. It says he acquired the nickname OG during his military service.
The firm probably has a good point, said Eugene Volokh, who teaches First Amendment law at the the UCLA School of Law.
"When the government sets up a program in which people can engage in their own speech, like a license plate program, it generally has to administer it in a reasonable and viewpoint-neutral way, so it doesn't discriminate based on viewpoint,” he said.
The current policy seems to fall short, he said, “first of all because that's very vague and separately because some of the offensiveness that the DMV seems to be pointing to seems to come from the viewpoint.”
The suit includes plaintiffs with four other examples:
- “DUK N A,” which the lawsuit says is short for Ducati motorcycles and Andrea, the first name of plaintiff Andrea Campanile. The department said it sounds like an obscene phrase.
- “BO11UX,” though the lawsuit says “bullocks” has been used to mean “nonsense” in a national advertising campaign.
- “SLAAYRR,” which it says is a reference to the metal band
- “QUEER,” which it says is a reference to the plaintiff's sexual orientation and his record label, Queer Folks Records, which he adopted in an effort to reclaim what has become a pejorative label.
Even if the state ultimately allows more arguably offensive words on license plates, Volokh said, "it's not such a huge deal. It's not that people will start distrusting the DMV. Anything people can say on a license plate they could say on a bumper sticker.”

Sales of the Florida Endless Summer specialty license plate have grown 272% since 2013, now surpassing $2 million in 2019.

​Funds are used for programs which include educating the general public regarding the history of surfing as a sport and as a recreational activity; providing support for lifeguards at high risk beaches to aid in the protection of the public who utilize such beaches; providing support for environmentally friendly activities; providing educational programs, including publication of articles and hosting and supporting forums and events; and for developing and supporting activities designed to assist in preserving and protecting the shoreline and the delicate ecosystems residing therein.  

The Endless Summer slogan is used under license from Bruce Brown Films, LLC.

Prior to 1964, the media saw surfers as rebellious thugs, and Hollywood made them out to be a bunch of idiots. Filmmaker Bruce Brown single- handedly changed that with The Endless Summer. It portrayed the wave as a kind of Holy Grail and surfers as knights on a quest. In one stroke, he replaced Hollywood’s buffoonery with the popular mythology that endures today. 

The Endless Summer was Brown’s sixth surfing film in a career that started almost accidentally and proceeded according to the guerrilla template of the times — shoot all winter, edit in the spring, run your ass off all summer showing the damn thing (including doing your own live narration) in school auditoriums and small halls, then pack up for another winter on the road and do it all over again. With The Endless Summer, Brown broke that mold.

​California did not issue temporary license plates for new vehicle purchases until 2019. Prior to 2019, California was unusual among the U.S. states in not requiring any form of temporary license plate. Vehicle dealers were still required to electronically report sales of new vehicles to the DMV, but they were only required to print out a DMV report-of-sale form at the time of sale.
Newly purchased vehicles typically drove around for a month or more with nothing but a dealer's advertisement or logo on a paper plate insert where the license plate would go, and the DMV report-of-sale form was instead taped to the windshield.
This made the new vehicle essentially "untraceable" both by plain visual observation by persons, and by automated means such as license-plate reading systems, red light cameras, and automatic number plate recognition. 

​This led to an epidemic of drivers of newly purchased vehicles cheating tolls on bridges and toll roads where a transponder system is used instead of toll booths, causing the state to lose $15–19 million per year. Because of this, new state legislation was adopted in 2016 requiring temporary license plates in California beginning in 2019. The DMV's reporting system was modified so that dealers could print out the temporary license plates on special paper. The law was inspired by the hit-and-run death of a pedestrian who was struck by a car with dealer paper inserts, and because it had no temporary plates it was impossible to trace the suspect.  
California's previous lack of a temporary plate requirement was jokingly known as the "Steve Jobs loophole" due to the one-time Apple CEO's habit of keeping rolling six-month leases on a series of Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMGs specifically to avoid having to put license plates on the cars.  
California's previous lack of temporary plates was also taken advantage of by criminals, who knew that a car driving with a dealer ad paper insert was both untraceable and did not raise suspicion. 

The Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Bureau of the California Department of Public Health has designed a specialty plate to celebrate the health benefits of bicycling. The plate is expected to raise millions of dollars for bicycle education and encouragement programs, such as earn-a-bike programs for at-risk youth, middle and high school programs, advocacy for bicycles as transportation, and safety and share the road education programs for drivers and cyclists.

The Department of Motor Vehicles will issue the plate only after 7,500 people have placed pre-orders. Then, the bicycle plate will be available to everyone as a choice whenever they register their car each year. 

A U.S. judge ruled a soccer fan can sue the California Department of Motor Vehicles and claim it violated his freedom of speech by rejecting his request for a personalized license plate. Jonathan Kotler, a devoted fan of Britain’s Fulham Football Club, sued the CADMV after it refused to issue him a license plate lettered “COYW,” short for “Come On You Whites” - Fulham fans’ regular chant for their white-jerseyed players.
The DMV told Kotler the lettering has “connotations offensive to good taste and decency.”
U.S. District Judge George Wu in Los Angeles refused to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Kotler, a University of Southern California journalism law professor.
California sought the dismissal, saying all vehicle license plates constitute speech by the government. Wu disagreed.
With thousands of differently lettered plates issued each year, “it strains believability to argue that viewers perceive the government as speaking through personalized vanity plates,” the judge said about the DMV’s contention.
DMV regulations define “offensive” plates as including those with any sexual connotation, as well as any term that is vulgar, racist, profane, insulting or degrading.
Wu noted in his ruling that British media refer to the Fulham club as “the Whites” while Chelsea, another London soccer club, is known as “the Blues,” for the color of its jerseys. New Zealand’s national rugby team is the “All Blacks.”
In court filings, state lawyers argued that the public knows the DMV approves messages on license plates and would assume that those messages came from the state.
The DMV declined to comment on Wu’s ruling.

​With the Legacy plate bringing in $27,303,805 with 669,083 plates in circulation as of December 1, 2018, compared to $23,853,384 (450,955) in 2017, other California special interest plates have shown a significant decline. The Coastal Commission’s 'Whale Tail’ plate dropped from $6,054,721 (82,805 plates) in 2017 to $5,286,907 (79,934 plates) in 2018; the ‘Kids’ plate has dropped from $4,524,346 (109,967 plates) to $3,960,927 (107,721 plates); and the ‘Arts’ plate has dropped from $3,773,030 (52,840) to $3,297,539 (50,485). The only plates seeing an increase in sales from 2017 to 2018 are the newly introduced Breast Cancer Awareness ‘Pink’ plate, the Museum ‘Snoopy’ plate.
The reason for this could well be the influence of the cost of personalizing the specific plate. While every specialty plate requires an additional $50.00 fee to personalize the plate (known as the ‘Environmental License Plate Fund’ fee, which goes to the environmental fund, which is the same as where all of the funds from the Legacy plates go), the Legacy plate does not require the additional fee. So instead of it costing $103.00 for a personalized plate, the Legacy plate only costs $50.00 whether personalized or not. It also provides a ‘blank’ black canvas for the yellow lettering for personalizations up to 7 characters.
As much as the environmental fund is a great cause, so are the other causes supported by the other specialty license plates and all the while they are being charged extra, there will probably be a continued decline in their sales. Maybe it’s time to level the playing field and remove the ELP Fund fee for personalizing other specialty plates, since the ELP Fund is certainly doing very well with $27 million and counting in annual fees now going into that fund through the Legacy plate?