AZ HOV Clean Air Plate

[gilbertguy]

Talked with k9groomer8157 last night and he told me that 3 weeks ago Arizona reopened its HOV Clean Air plate program back up to the public. He had just gotten his new plate at that time through the program but wasn't sure how long they would keep it open. If you own a Prius, Inisght or HCH you can get a special clean air plate that allows you to drive in the car pool lane.

I immediately jumped on the DMV website but to my dismay they had once again closed the program to new plate holders....... BUT! IF.... you already had the Clean Air plate from the original program intro 5-6 years ago it is now transferable to a different vehicle as long as it was one of the 3 mentioned above. I had this plate on my Prius until it was totaled last year. At the time it was considered "NON-TRANSFERABLE" and I got stuck with a normal AZ plate on my Insight replacement.

So, today went to DMV and got my old Prius plate transfered no issue to my G1 Insight. I can now once again drive in the car pool lane!!!

If you have the plate but had trouble transfering to your new car they changed the rules.

Motor Vehicle Division

[Dakine]

Congrats on the plate! I too took advantage of this on 9/24. I just happened to be looking for personalized plates and noticed the offer for the Clean Air plate on the DMV site.

Although I don't visit the Phoenix area too often I like the plate and the fact there are no annual fees. Now that I know I could possibly transfer the plate to another hybrid it makes it even better. However, knowing DMV they will say it only applies to those plates originally issued back in 2005-06.

[racer26]

*grumble* Ontario's "Green Vehicle" plates (which give HOV lane benefits) are only good for PHEV and BEV vehicles that were manufactured as such, so my insight doesnt qualify, and wouldn't, even if I were to convert it.

It means the only vehicles that can legitimately wear those plates here are:

Chevy Volt
Nissan Leaf
Tesla Roadster
Tesla Roadster S
smart fortwo electric

[Varak]

Crap, guess I missed the opportunity.

Why would they reopen it for such a short period of time?

Edit: One of my pet peeves is the hundreds of golf carts and city buses sporting these plates.

[Dakine]

My understanding is that vehicles that qualified for the plate were taken out of service or sold. Thus the 10k number had dropped which allowed DMV to issue additional plates to bring the number issued back to 10k.

DMV states
"The Energy Efficient license plate is no longer available. This plate was issued as a part of Arizona's Energy Efficient Pilot Program, with a maximum of 10,000 participants.

Only Honda Civic Hybrid, Honda Insight and Toyota Prius (all model years) qualify for this pilot program. The pilot program is limited to 10,000 participants. Should the pilot program end, a replacement plate will be issued to existing participants and no additional fee will be charged.

Qualifying vehicles will be issued a special Alternative Fuel license plate with a Hybrid graphic. Vehicles that display the Energy Efficient plate will be allowed access to the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes in Arizona any time regardless of the number of occupants."

[AZhitman]

I got 2 (ordered within seconds of each other). Was hoping for consecutive numbers, but didn't get it.

Anyway, I now have "fluffy cloud plates" on both Insights.

[gilbertguy]

Okay, next time they open the program again someone post it on the forum for the rest of the folks that need them. I'm just glad they transfered my old clean air plate from my totaled Prius to my Insight.