There will soon be an extra character on Wisconsin’s standard-issue vehicle license plates.
The state has just about exhausted the three number and three letter combinations. As a result, Division of Motor Vehicles plate room supervisor Jeremy Krueger says new plates are being sent out to service centers and auto dealers that use all seven characters spots. The state has been using the three letter, three number configuration for decades.
The new plates will start with three letters, followed by a dash, and then four numbers. Krueger says that gives the agency over 100 million possible combinations.
Current plates will still be in use and do not need to be replaced. The size of the lettering and numbers will remain the same, as will the design of the license plate.
The plates will start being issued to customers once locations run out of the current six character versions, which Krueger says could happen this month.