An agreement between the state of Michigan and a digital license plate company has come to an end.
Some drivers paid hundreds of dollars for their digital plates, but due to mistakes by the company, those plates will soon be unusable, state officials said.
Michigan said it will end its agreement about two years after Reviver started selling digital license plates.
This means that the company will have to stop selling license plates to Michigan drivers, and anyone with a current plate from the company will need to stop using it after their registration expires.
In 2022, Michigan became the third state to allow the road use of digital license plates. On June 6 of that year, the Secretary of State entered into an agreement with a company called Reviver.
Earlier this month, the Secretary of State issued a letter to the company and drivers who had purchased digital plates from them, that the state would no longer be working with Reviver.
Why did Michigan terminate the agreement?
The state’s agreement with Reviver actually expired on Dec. 31, 2023, but both Michigan and Reviver continued working under the terms they originally agreed to.
That changed when the state said Revivor failed to comply with the terms. The state sent a letter to customers letting them know that the agreement would be terminated effective Aug. 10, 2024.
A notice to terminate sent to Reviver on July 11, 2024, listed the contractual obligations that the state said the company failed to meet:
Reviver did not get graphics approved
Per the agreement, only standard-issue plates were eligible to be digitized. Any new graphics would need to be approved by the state before they were used.
The state said that Reviver developed and used plates outside of the three approved standard plate types, which was contrary to Michigan law. The unauthorized plates were not approved by the state before they were issued.
“In fact, they were not even presented to MDOS for review, possibly because they were such a clear violation of the state law and the MOA (Memorandum of Agreement),” the state said in a letter to Reviver.
Reviver failed to check registration status of customers
The state said that Reviver failed to check the registration status of customers before issuing digital plates.
Reviver was required to check the registration status of a customer before putting Michigan registration on a digital plate. Reviver was given direct access to check Michigan-based customers against the state’s internal system.
The state said it had been trying to work with Reviver since April 2023 to get the company to comply. “We have no record of registration inquires made by your company as required by Clause IV,” the state said in a March 2023 letter to Reviver.
Even though efforts were made, the company did not fully comply with the agreement. The state said that 78 non-dealership sales were reported by Reviver from January 2024 to April 2024 and the Department could only verify that 56 were reviewed by Reviver before they were sold.
Local 4 reached out to Reviver and has not yet heard back.
What happens if you purchased a plate?
After Aug. 10, 2024, Reviver will not be allowed to sell digital license plates to Michigan customers or allow current customers to renew their digital plates.
Anyone who is a current customer of Reviver and purchased a digital license plate before Aug. 10, 2024, will be allowed to keep using the plate until their registration expires.
If you still have your original license plate, you can replace the digital one with that when your registration expires. If you do not have the original plate, you will need to purchase a new one through the Secretary of State. A standard license plate costs $5. Additional fees might apply depending on the plate type, personalization, or a Recreation Passport.
If the state finds a digital license plate vendor before the expiration of your current registration, you can purchase a digital license plate through that vendor.
How much did digital license plates cost?
In 2022, when Local 4 first reported that Reviver was selling digital license plates in Michigan, the license plates cost between $861.60 and $1,101.60.
As of July 24, 2024, Reviver had a battery-operated digital license plate listed on its website and for sale to Michigan drivers for $699 or a subscription of $39.95 a month.