The excitement after finally receiving my new plates rivaled that of Steve Martin's character in The Jerk when the new phone books arrived. The milestone event for Navin Johnson was finally having a public identity. In much the same way, my 100 Percent Electric Mitsubishi i-MiEV now wears a badge of honor displaying its true identity.
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373 EL |
373 EL
I originally applied by mail for my plates around October 20, 2012. The first indication that was received that the application was being processed was discovering that the check cleared on November 1, 2012. I figured that if something wasn't filled out properly, they would return the entire application and make me start over. Fortunately that didn't just turn out to be a poor assumption on my part. The strong feeling of cautious optimism was the result of the "modified" form I filed. An AFFIRMATION FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE is required to be filled out when submitting the application. In an earlier post, I displayed the official (but outdated) Illinois Secretary of State form. As an advocate for Electric Vehicles, I really wanted to share the updated form that I created. (I have updated this page to add an image of the form I used at the bottom of the page.) My hesitation was in waiting to determine if that would be cause to reject my application. So, on November 20, 2012 I returned home from work and checked the mail. I had been checking the mail with eager anticipation for the last week. My internal goal was to have the plates by Thanksgiving. (For readers not familiar with Thanksgiving, it is a holiday in the United States of America on the fourth Thursday in November that is part remembrance of the European settlers arriving on the continent and a Autumn harvest festival.)
DISPLAYING THE PLATE
The Mitsubishi dealership provided a plastic license plate frame with their dealership "advertising" on it at the time of purchase. That was OK with the original passenger plates for the car. But the Electric Vehicle plates deserve to be displayed more predominantly than the passenger plates. The simple solution was to turn the plastic frame around and put it behind the plate. The advantage of still using the plastic frame is that the metal license plate is not in direct contact with the plastic bumper which could lead to gouges in the bumper over time. The front bumper does not have a factory license plate mount. My solution was to use double-sided foam tape.
DISPLAYING THE PLATE
The Mitsubishi dealership provided a plastic license plate frame with their dealership "advertising" on it at the time of purchase. That was OK with the original passenger plates for the car. But the Electric Vehicle plates deserve to be displayed more predominantly than the passenger plates. The simple solution was to turn the plastic frame around and put it behind the plate. The advantage of still using the plastic frame is that the metal license plate is not in direct contact with the plastic bumper which could lead to gouges in the bumper over time. The front bumper does not have a factory license plate mount. My solution was to use double-sided foam tape.
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Front Plate mounted using double-sided foam tape. |
These plates expire in December of 2013. At that time, $38 will be charged to renew the plates for another two years. The alternative, if I kept the passenger plates, would be to pay $99 per year. The next step is to try to figure out how to get a refund for the plates I paid for when buying the car. That will be another blog if I am successful.
AFFIRMATION FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE
Below is the form that I submitted to the Secretary of State. It was accepted for my application, it should work for anyone else also.
Below is the form that I submitted to the Secretary of State. It was accepted for my application, it should work for anyone else also.
