Car designers are still baffled by how to deal with front license plates, but Idaho has a solution that’s unique among the 50 states. If your car doesn’t have a front license plate bracket, you are no longer required to attach a front license plate. Senate Bill 1180 took effect on July 1, 2025, but a recent Idaho News 6 report has brought this loophole to wider attention.
“You’re going to get two plates no matter whether your car needs one or two,” said Britt Rosenthal with the Idaho Division of Motor Vehicles. “A lot of cars nowadays are electric or hybrid and don’t come with a bracket, so rather than forcing people to potentially compromise the front of their car, they’re just not required to have a plate if it doesn’t have a place for it.”
Contrary to Rosenthal’s statement, the front plate situation is not unique to EVs and hybrids.
Alejandro Montalvan, who has run Advantage Auto Sales in Garden City for more than 10 years, remembers getting a reminder from the Idaho Transportation Department about the change.
“So, right here we got a Dodge Charger. This one doesn’t have the bracket,” Montalvan said.
When asked how many cars on his lots lack brackets, Montalvan estimated about 20%.
Naturally, the police don’t like this, because it makes both manual and automatic tracking more difficult. Plus, they insist that if your car has a front plate bracket, you’re still required to put the plate on the car. Idaho will continue to issue two plates, whether you need a front one or not, which is a great use of resources.Â
By our recent count, 29 states plus Washington D.C. require front license plates, though Idaho now falls into a grey area with this new law. Nearly every other country in the world requires both front and rear plates. Cars definitely look better without them, but when they’re legally required almost everywhere, it’s strange that car designers don’t seem to realize that front license plates exist.
Enthusiasts, rejoice
The Dodge Charger, Alfa Romeo Giulia, and every Tesla are good modern examples of cars with no place to put a front license plate. The Mazda MX-5 Miata has never had a good place to put one since its introduction in 1990. On the original NA model, the stock bracket put dents in the bumper if anyone nudged it and mounting it in the grill area caused mine to overheat on the track because of the reduced airflow. My AW11 Toyota MR2 suffered from the same problem, and that was the stock location on that car.
When Massachusetts started issuing front plates in the early 1990s, I took my first car, a 1982 Pontiac 6000LE, to the dealer to figure out how to install it. They didn’t know. On the opposite extreme, when I bought my 2014 Subaru BRZ new, also in Massachusetts, the dealer was surprised that I actually wanted the stock front plate bracket installed. No, the car didn’t look as good with it, but it was the law, and I was tired of constantly keeping the “it just fell off, officer” story up my sleeve as I had for years with my Miatas.
With Idaho’s solution, I expect enthusiasts to be rushing to remove their brackets so they don’t have to display a front plate anymore. The law says nothing about removing them from cars that already have them, only that vehicles without brackets don’t need a front plate. If buying new and the dealer offers to install one, you can politely decline and be perfectly legal without it. Short of not having front plates at all, like 21 states do, this is the next best solution to preserve a car’s good looks.
