No more AZ plates, out of luck!

Arizona is not issuing any more alternative fuel plates as of a few days ago according to the local news reports. No more diamond lane for those who didn't get the special plate. Probably no more reduced registration either. Guess there will be more need for blow up dolls and cardboard cutouts. I was really lucky to just squeak in and get my plates. Wonder if there will be enough public outcry to reverse this policy? Sad really. It was an additional incentive that now appears to be no longer available.

It sounds like AZ reached a cap of how many exemptions they would provide. California did for the yellow stickers (non-plug-in hybrids) and now has them for the green stickers (PHEVs) which have been raised at least once. For now California is not putting a cap on white stickers (battery-only electrics, hydrogen fuel cells, and certain CNG-only powered vehicles) for the time being, but green and white stickers are only good until January 1, 2019. The yellow stickers became invalid on July 1, 2011.

It seems they sabotaged the program by making ordinary hybrids eligible for the AFV plates. Hybrids run on gas not alternative fuels. Dang, I'm trading my LEAF for a new one next week so it looks like I won't get the honors and privileges of the AFV plate anymore.

kovalb, your plate should be able to move to your next vehicle. I think you will be in luck! The plate stays with the original owner in AZ. As long as your new vehicle qualifies, it will still be all blue sky with scattered clouds for you!

I lease through my company and get new plates each time. I just found out I got lucky! My plate came in and it's AFV. Honors and privileges until my next-next LEAF.

RonDawg said:

It sounds like AZ reached a cap of how many exemptions they would provide. California did for the yellow stickers (non-plug-in hybrids) and now has them for the green stickers (PHEVs) which have been raised at least once. For now California is not putting a cap on white stickers (battery-only electrics, hydrogen fuel cells, and certain CNG-only powered vehicles) for the time being, but green and white stickers are only good until January 1, 2019. The yellow stickers became invalid on July 1, 2011.

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Green stickers will be released until they hit 70K, then done. That sucks on the CAV stickers until 2019, but hopefully by then I'll be living on an island with no traffic ! I still don't understand how the Tesla got into the carpool lane when they have 300 miles on their GOM ??

My biggest complaint is how many cheaters are in the carpool lane, the police say they need money, just sit next to the carpool lane off the 405 freeway and you can make $7-8k easy with all the people who "Are Not" supposed to be in the lane.

S

I still don't understand how the Tesla got into the carpool lane when they have 300 miles on their GOM ??

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Tesla is fully and 100% battery powered. Why wouldn't it get the same benefits as other fully battery-powered EVs?

They reached the limit of 10,000 hybrid plates so they are no longer issuing the blue plates to those vehicles such as Volt, range extended i3, plug in Prius, etc. The true alternative fuel blue plates are still available to fully electric, hydrogen, alcohol, etc. vehicles. The LEAF, Tesla, and BMW i3 (without range extender) qualify for the AF plates which will remain available. There is no limit to the number of AF plates.

Gerry

Wow! The news station I listened to didn't say that. And a salesman at an auto dealer that I bought one of my cars from, said his new Leaf customers were mad and not able to get the plates. Maybe they are temporarily out too for those that qualify? Time to dig into this story further...

The news stations don't know the difference and many car dealers are confused. When I bought my 2011 in June 2011, the less knowledgeable Nissan dealers said the blue plates were not available for the LEAF (because the hybrid plates were at the 10,000 limit back then), but the dealer I purchased from knew the rules and assured me they would license it with an AF plate. I had checked the rules and knew it qualified so I was prepared to take care of the license and registration myself. If anyone purchasing a Leaf now has trouble with the dealer refusing to apply for an AF plate, I suggest you ask for a bill of sale and go to MVD to get your AF plate.

Gerry

Thanks GerryAZ! You are spot on! The local news is not presenting this correctly and that has helped fuel more confusion. You are so right on this. I will make a couple of calls tomorrow to help some others who have also been misled. Even some employees of MVD are confused. I have a funny one... They insisted that I needed to have emission testing when I went to MVD on my second Leaf. It didn't persist too long, but I found it amusing! However, I can't keep track of all the available cars and models offered myself.

Sondy132001 said:

My biggest complaint is how many cheaters are in the carpool lane, the police say they need money, just sit next to the carpool lane off the 405 freeway and you can make $7-8k easy with all the people who "Are Not" supposed to be in the lane.

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I agree. At times I have seen one car in 3 or 4 being cheaters.

I suspect they don't ticket them because they want to justify more carpool and toll lanes.

Sondy132001 said:

Green stickers will be released until they hit 70K, then done.

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It was originally capped at 40k, but then was increased (no doubt through the lobbying efforts of certain automotive manufacturers with PHEVs in their lineups) when that limit was reached. When the 70k cap is reached, don't be surprised if once again it gets raised.

I still don't understand how the Tesla got into the carpool lane when they have 300 miles on their GOM ??

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Because any battery-only electric (that is not a NEV -- aka "glorified golf cart") is allowed to get the white stickers. It's one of the perks to encourage adoption of a alternate-fuel vehicle. Range never had anything to do with it.

My biggest complaint is how many cheaters are in the carpool lane, the police say they need money, just sit next to the carpool lane off the 405 freeway and you can make $7-8k easy with all the people who "Are Not" supposed to be in the lane.

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The CHP makes absolutely no direct revenue from traffic citations. Most of your traffic fine goes to the county where the violation occurred (in the form of a "penalty assessment" which is a tax on traffic fines, except the tax is far greater than the original fine). What does go to the state goes to the general fund.

The CHP are also understaffed just like most any police agency in the state.

I've been wondering if Georgia is going to do this next. They've already shut off the Tax rebate for EVs and tacked on a $200 annual fee to make up for gas tax losses. Logical next step will be to remove our HOV privileges (no, I'm not bitter...)

It also depends on how bad your air quality is. There are places that want to continue to give incentives to cut down on pollution and get the EPA off their backs and their fines reduced.

GerryAZ said:

They reached the limit of 10,000 hybrid plates so they are no longer issuing the blue plates to those vehicles such as Volt, range extended i3, plug in Prius, etc. The true alternative fuel blue plates are still available to fully electric, hydrogen, alcohol, etc. vehicles. The LEAF, Tesla, and BMW i3 (without range extender) qualify for the AF plates which will remain available. There is no limit to the number of AF plates. Gerry

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Thanks Gerry. It appears that this only affects PHEVs. I did not realize that HEVs became ineligible earlier. HEV owners are instructed "Customers with a vehicle that qualified under the previous program (Honda Civic Hybrid, Honda Insight and non-plug-in Toyota Prius) and is currently registered with an Energy Efficient plate will be allowed to continue to use their plate on that vehicle and drive in the HOV lane until they sell/transfer the vehicle."

Thankfully the AFV plate program is not affected, just like you said.