# Iowa license plate: Blackout

> The Iowa blackout license plate: format LLL999, for example VUK744, documented since 2026, car, van, truck, and motorcycle.

Page: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--iowa/blackout · Markdown version of the HTML page, which is canonical. Site map: https://vehiclesdb.com/llms.txt · Terms of use: https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/terms

Part of [Iowa license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--iowa) (6 registration series).

![Iowa (United States) license plate, Blackout (documented since 2026)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-ia/us-ia-blackout/iowa-license-plate-blackout.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `LLL999` (L is any letter, 9 any digit) |
| Years | ~2026 → today (documented from 2026; the format is likely older) |
| Class | specialty |
| Issued for | car, van, truck, motorcycle |
| Checking a registration | The format above is broad: a registration that fits it has the right shape, which does not show that this series issued it. |
| Series id | `us-ia-blackout` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--iowa/blackout) |

Sources:

- [Iowa Code § 321.34(11C): 'Blackout plates' as an authorised special registration plate subsection](https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/321.34.pdf)
- [Iowa Code § 321.166(9): blackout plates among those exempt from the design-and-colour-consistency requirement, i.e. the statutory licence for the design to differ](https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/321.166.pdf)

## About this plate

BLACKOUT PLATES. Broken out as its own series because § 321.166(9) expressly frees it from the design and colour of the regular plate, which is a design difference in the §2.3 sense even though the Code never says what the design IS. Iowa and North Dakota both run statutory blackout plates, a small Midwestern convergence worth recording for the encyclopedia, and comparing the two is instructive about sourcing: one state wrote the colours into law and the other wrote only a permission.

## Other specialty plates here

- [Specialty index](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--iowa/specialty-index) (documented since 2026)

## Use it

- Plate image (SVG): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-ia/us-ia-blackout.svg
- Make it with your own text: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plate-generator/iowa?series=us-ia-blackout
- API: `GET https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/us-ia` returns this series as the entry with `"id": "us-ia-blackout"` (https://vehiclesdb.com/api)

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Open data, CC BY 4.0: reuse it with a visible credit to VehiclesDB and a link (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/attribution). Plate images show sample serials and are not open data (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/image-license). Dataset commit db0ec0a: https://github.com/vehiclesdb/vehiclesdb