Pine Tree Plate

FAQs

Here you can find answers to questions about the Pine Tree Plate. Click on one of the PDFs below to get more information.

The Pine Tree Plate arrived May 1, 2025.
In 2023, the legislature mandated that the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) replace all Chickadee plates starting May 1, 2025. Chickadee plates have aged, entered various states of disrepair, and lost their reflectivity. Over a single year, 1,200,000 Chickadee plates, which is 71% of all license plates in Maine, will be replaced by Pine Tree or No Tree license plates.

You may be asking, why is this so important? Unlike introducing a new specialty plate, this is cycling out our standard license plate. Beginning May 1, 2025, the Chickadee license plate will no longer be issued.

Reserving Your License Plate
Every Pine Tree and No Tree license plate will come with a new license plate number. If you want to reserve your current Chickadee license plate number, you can! You just need to fill out some information and pay a one-time $25 fee. The BMV offers four easy ways to do this.

You can:

- Go to an online portal we specially designed for plate reservations at: maine.gov/online/reservemyplate
- Reserve while using Rapid Renewal at: maine.gov/online/bmv/rapid-renewal/
- Visit a branch office for assistance. To do this, go to maine.gov/sos/bmv/ and click on “Schedule an Appointment”
- Mail a paper form to 29 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0029. To do this, go to maine.gov/sos/bmv/bmv-forms-and-applications and scroll down to “Registration Forms”

If you have a vanity, low-digit or a number that you like, we urge you to reserve your plate now. Doing so will get the plate sent to you several weeks before your vehicle’s registration’s month of expiration.

If you reserve your current Chickadee license plate number at the time you renew your vehicle’s registration, you will pay the one-time $25 at that point, and you will not get it that day. Instead, your plates will arrive within several weeks and until your new plates arrive you will continue using your Chickadee license plate.

Every Chickadee Plate Will Be Replaced
A general issuance does not just affect passenger plates. Instead, it will touch every single Chickadee license plate class. Once the issuance begins not a single type of Chickadee license plate will be issued. The new standard license plate for Maine will be the Pine Tree license plate.

For your convenience, we have provided the various plate names, plate class codes (which you can find on your vehicle’s registration), and images of what the new plates will look like.

Picture of the different pine tree plates.

2-step process
There are four class codes that are not carried at the municipalities, due to additional processing requirements. Bus (BU), Hire (TX), Low Speed (LS) and Street Rod (SR). Registrants will need to pay excise tax at their local town and then go to a BMV branch location to complete their registrations and receive their new license plate.

There is one class code that is only carried at the BMV administrative office in Augusta. Registrants with a Horseless Carriage (HC) license plate will need to pay excise tax at their local town and then go to a BMV branch location. The branch will call the BMV registration section for a Horseless Carriage license plate number and issue a temporary license plate, registration and stickers to the registrant. The BMV registration section will mail the new Horseless Carriage license plate to the registrant.

Disabled Motor Vehicle (WX) license plate will be replaced by the Motor Home (MH) license plate.
Once the issuance begins, customers with a WX license plate will receive an MH license plate in its place when they go to their town office to renew. The BMV’s registration section will send a letter to those affected by this change, along with an issued handicapped placard if the current registrant doesn’t already one.

FAQs

Here you can find answers to questions about the Pine Tree Plate. Click on one of the PDFs below to get more information.

You may contact the BMV Registration Section with questions or comments at: (207) 624-9000 ext. 52149 or by email at registrations@maine.gov.