License plates formatted with the soon-to-be discontinued combination of “1AAA000” are seen in Foster City, Calif.
License plates formatted with the soon-to-be discontinued combination of “1AAA000” are seen in Foster City, Calif.
A big change is coming to California license plates after 46 years, according to multiple reports.
The state reportedly ran out of combinations earlier this year for its current plate sequence of one number, three letters and three numbers. The first plate under the current format was issued back in 1980, DMV spokesperson Ronald Ongtoaboc told the Los Angeles Times.
Now, the state plans to opt for a mirrored version of that sequence, with three numbers followed by three letters and one number, so the pattern would look like “000AAA0.”
While California has run out of combinations under the current license plate format, over 110,000 of these plates are still available to be issued throughout the state, Ongtoaboc told the LA Times. Plates with the new, flipped format have started to be produced by the DMV, but are not being issued yet, according to Ongtoaboc.
However, multiple people on social media have reported sightings of the new format in the wild within the past two weeks.
Ongtoaboc told the LA Times that “based on historical data” the new format should be good for another 40 years, with over 100 million possible combinations.