For a while, not having the actual plate made everything more annoying than it should have been. Whether I was entering the company garage or the apartment basement, the plate-recognition system simply would not accept the temporary plate. Every time, I had to go to the property office for a proof, then persuade the guard at the gate to lift the barrier by hand. Back and forth, over and over—it wore me down. A weekend trip home meant the highway, and many toll stations in Wuhan are unattended. I had to honk until someone came over and typed the information in manually. Just thinking about it was exhausting. So for those few days, my eyes were practically glued to the plate progress. Fortunately, after all that waiting, the plate finally arrived.
On the morning of the 16th, I was already pushing the dealership to confirm the progress with the vehicle management office. It took four working days in total. That is not a bad speed, but the waiting still felt unusually long—each day dragged on like a week. I remember when I bought a fuel car before, the dealership handled the paperwork at the vehicle office while I cooperated remotely on the number selection. No authorization was needed; they just took my ID and got it done. Choosing a number is easier now. If you want to do it online, you can go straight to the 12123 app. There are two ways: pick one number from each of five groups and then settle on one of those five, or customize a plate with 50 attempts—though chances are the ones you actually want are already taken.
The dealership also suggested choosing a plate with one letter followed by all numbers. For my plate, apart from the 鄂AG at the front, there were five positions left, and they recommended filling them with digits. I had worried there would not be many all-number options, but once I looked through the pool, there were quite a lot. I first filtered out anything with a 4, then picked numbers that had personal meaning and were easy to remember. I narrowed it down to four and discussed them with my wife for a long time before settling on one. Because my car is a hybrid, the plate had to start with 鄂AG or 鄂AF. My daughter was born on May 8, so I wanted the last three digits to be memorable and meaningful. Then I spotted 鄂AG58272 and locked it in immediately. The more I looked at it, the more right it felt—and it is easy to remember.
Originally, I planned to have the dealership try another round on the on-site selector at the vehicle office, but they said that once you start choosing at the machine, the number you picked online automatically becomes invalid. After thinking it over, I gave up on the machine selection. If nothing suitable came up on site, I would lose the current number too—that would be a bad trade.
Yesterday after work, I went home and put the plate on right away. The installation went smoothly enough, except for the last eight anti-theft caps, which took a tremendous amount of effort to press in. In the end, I had no better idea than to use a screwdriver and hammer them in. The basement was cool, but I still ended up covered in sweat.
To be honest, a green plate on a black car looks a little strange, not quite harmonious. Maybe it is because I am used to blue plates. This morning I peeled off the temporary plate and took a photo; the result looked pretty good. Black cars really do show dirt. We had two light rains in the past few days, and there is already a layer of dust on the car. I have never liked washing cars—I only care about keeping the interior clean and tidy. Looks like I will just wait for a heavy rain to rinse it off.
As for the charging box: it arrived last weekend. I had arranged for someone to install it, but he kept saying he was busy, and his price was not cheap. My parking spot is 40 meters from the meter, and the charging box does not come with a cable. I need to buy 40 meters of 3×6 sq mm cable, a leakage protector, auxiliary materials, and pay for labor. The first person quoted 2000, which felt a bit expensive. Then I found another person who quoted 1600 and included a lockable iron box. My charging box is a low-spec model with no lock, so anyone could come and charge. A lockable box is just what I need. I thought the price was reasonable, so I settled on him. But he also keeps saying he is busy. Four days have passed, and he still has not given a time—only that he will come when he has time. If he does not show up this weekend, I will start looking for someone else.
