Wisconsin DMV Rolls Out New ‘B’ Series License Plates as ‘A’ Combinations Run Out

WISCONSIN -- The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will soon debut a new series of license plates that begin with the letter ‘B’. After nearly eight years and 4.7 million letter and number combinations on license plates issued by Wisconsin DMV, all combinations of plates that begin with the letter ‘A’ have been exhausted.

“Wisconsin DMV is proud to provide Wisconsin drivers the credentials they need to safely get from point A to point B and now we’re moving from A to B,” DMV Administrator Tommy Winkler said. “Drivers can ‘B’ on the lookout for the new license plates when they begin rolling out statewide this month.”

The first batch of ‘B’ plates will begin with BAA and will move through millions of letter and number combinations until all combinations starting with ‘B’ are issued. Wisconsin DMV estimates that process will take approximately seven years through issuing new plates and automatically replacing very old plates still on the road.

Wisconsin license plates currently have seven characters but that wasn’t always the case. Wisconsin plates had six characters until April 2017, when the current format of seven-character license plates beginning with the letter ‘A’ began. The additional character yields about 100 million combinations; the previous six-character license plates yielded about 20 million combinations. The letters ‘I,’ ‘O,’ and ‘Q’ are not included in the combinations because they resemble numbers.

Each year, Wisconsin DMV issues more than 600,000 new license plates. Approximately 3.5 million vehicles have standard Wisconsin plates.

Vehicle owners looking to replace their older license plates can be among the first to order the new “B” series online.

Wisconsin DMV license plates at a glance:

• Wisconsin plates had a set format of six characters since 1986 and reversed from letters to numbers (WRZ-999 to 123-ABC) in 2000.
• Wisconsin was the first state to stagger license plate expiration months across all 12 months of the year. This system was implemented beginning in 1946, with plates being issued to expire between June 1946 and May 1947 when people went to renew their 1945 plates.
• Those who sign up for DMV’s eNotify receive renewal notification by email or text which includes direct links for convenient online renewal.