VehiclesDB

North Dakota license plate: Blackout

Issued today Documented since 2025. Specialty plates for car, truck, and motorcycle, issued by North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT), Motor Vehicle Division. One of 6 North Dakota license plates.

North Dakota (United States) license plate, Blackout (documented since 2025), sample 170 XLG
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Format, years and the law

Format
999 LLL, for example 170 XLG (L is any letter, 9 any digit)

The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued.

Years issued
Documented since 2025; the format is likely older than the first year documented. Still issued.
Vehicle class
Specialty: optional-design programs on standard serials (US state programs). Issued for car, truck, and motorcycle.
Colours
Characters #FFFFFF Background #000000
About this plate
BLACKOUT PLATES. Two things make this series worth its own entry rather than a colour sub-entry on the standard series. Recorded rather than guessed. North Dakota and Iowa both run statutory blackout plates (Iowa Code § 321.34(11C)), a small Midwestern convergence worth noting for the encyclopedia.
About the format
ARRANGEMENT INHERITED, NOT SEPARATELY SOURCED. NDDOT says the blackout plate 'maintains all required plate elements such as registration decals and identification numbers', which implies but does not state that it carries the standard 123 ABC arrangement. Flagged as a gap.
Who can have one
§ 39-04-10.18(3): the director may issue blackout plates ONLY to the owner of a passenger motor vehicle, a truck whose registered gross weight does not exceed 20,000 pounds [9071.85 kg], or a motorcycle
Fee
$25.00 per registration period in addition to all other registration fees (§ 39-04-10.18(1))

Legal basis and sources

  1. NDCC § 39-04-10.18: the $25 per-period fee; (2) 'a solid black background' and 'white numbers and letters'; (3) the passenger / <=20,000 lb truck / motorcycle eligibility limit https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t39c04.pdf
  2. NDDOT: 'solid black background with crisp white lettering'; available for 'passenger cars, light trucks, and motorcycles'; 'Like other specialty plates, it comes with an additional fee'; the plate 'maintains all... https://www.dot.nd.gov/motor-vehicle/license-plates/blackout-plate

This plate in your app

The series id is us-nd-blackout. The API returns its format, validation, colours and designs with the rest of North Dakota's series:

curl -s https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/us-nd \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VEHICLESDB_API_KEY" \
  | jq '.series[] | select(.id == "us-nd-blackout")'
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