California has approved digital license plates for all makes and models of vehicles: could Tesla use this to its advantage to create an industry standard?
Digital license plates are already more technologically-advanced and innovative than the conventional alternative. Owners can display custom messages alongside the license plate, including useful functionality such as remotely marking a vehicle as stolen.
Visual personalization provides a light and dark mode, based on user preference. An integrated app can also provide alerts, including if a vehicle were to begin moving.
There are further built-in features including registration and renewal that communicates with the California DMV through a provided app, as well as location services for tracking a vehicle on the cloud-based platform. Trip monitoring rounds out the current model, which is exclusively produced by a company called Reviver.
Users find digital license plates to be more modern, fun, and futuristic, enhancing the design of the vehicle that it’s installed onto while adding personality and opportunities for creativity. A common use is to spread positivity with the displayed messages, and Tesla owners in particular find the sleek design to wonderfully complement their car.
It can be installed with either an integrated battery or a hard-wire, although with the inherently large high-voltage battery of an electric vehicle such as a Tesla hard-wiring would be the preferred option especially if it were to become a factory-installed option.
Tesla owners that already have a digital license plate are happy with their purchase, as it looks aesthetically better than a standard yellow plate — even if some of the more advanced features like vehicle tracking are already part of Tesla’s own app.
That design and enhanced technology comes at a cost: roughly $957 for a battery-powered plate financed over a suggested period of four years, or nearly $1,200 for the hard-wired RPlate.
Perhaps we can suggest Tesla to make a digital license plate available as a factory option, or to go a step further and produce their own digital license plate that could be included by default.
While it’s bound to add hundreds of dollars of added cost, that’s likely where the future is heading: digital license plates fit better into the high-tech era of electric vehicles.
Should Tesla want to go a step further, the automaker could even persuade legislators to allow them to integrate a license plate into the design of the vehicle rather than as a separate product. Regardless, digital license plates open up a new world of potential innovation to automakers.
Other states are looking to follow California’s lead, though not yet enough to make digital license plates the nationwide standard. We could see it next in New Jersey among four other states, although options currently remain limited to the RPlate.
RPlate has 36 million prospective customers in California alone, following a pilot program of 10,000 drivers. Yet, the digital license plate is a luxury above all else that gas-constrained buyers may not view as appealing even if it could prevent grand theft auto.
Above all, it’s a choice for Californian drivers: either pay a suggested cost of $19.95-$24.95 over a financing period of 48 months for a next-generation version of the license plate, or receive a conventional yellow plate for the cost of standard registration fees.
There are benefits to businesses, including the ability to track location and trips of company vehicles in a manner that’s perhaps even more simple than Tesla’s app.
One concern is that it increases the potential to be pulled over before cops are educated on the digital license plate being a legal device; however, California has been spreading awareness of the new option which was just approved in a bill last month.
Thus Tesla is a prime candidate to offer their own version of the digital license plate at a time when only one company produces them. Tesla enthusiasts know how much Elon Musk enjoys giving owners the option for quirky messages and the ability to stand out.
It could be worth it for the customization alone, then considering that Tesla already has onboard location services and connectivity it should be possible to hardwire the license plate onto the vehicle and utilize the vehicle’s computer and existing app for the same functionality thereby significantly reducing overall cost.
Factory installation would be a first, and Fremont is perhaps the best-positioned factory to offer such an option to California buyers that appreciate the sleeker design and potential for customizability, even if it could come at a cost of around $1,000.
Frankly as there’s no precedent for digital license plates being a standard feature, Tesla could charge for their own version. A separate option would be to make it standard at a reasonable cost, which we would estimate at around $250, and include it with the registration fees. Thus Tesla has the ability to set yet another precedent in the industry.
Digital license plates could also make the lives of Tesla’s employees easier, as there’s less direct communication with the DMV making the process more modern and networked.
An argument could be made for Tesla to use this opportunity to pioneer the 21st century digital license plate and set a new automotive precedent: should a digital license plate be Tesla’s next product? We certainly think it’s the future of vehicle registration.
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