page_title: Vehicle registration plates of France
section_title: Numbering
hierarchical_section_title: Vehicle registration plates of France / Current scheme / Numbering
caption_attribution_description: English: Provisional license plate from France, WW = Provisional, 19 = Corrèze department Deutsch: Test- und Kurzzeitkennzeichen aus Frankreich, WW = Test, 19 = Département Corrèze
context_page_description: Vehicle registration plates are mandatory number plates used to display the registration mark of a vehicle registered in France. They have existed in the country since 1901. It is compulsory for most motor vehicles used on public roads to display them.
  In French, vehicle registration plates are called plaques d'immatriculation or plaques minéralogiques. The latter makes a reference to the national mining administration, which was responsible for issuing the plates in the early 20th century.
  Since 1901, various systems have been successively introduced, the most recent dating from 2009. The registration plates issued since 2009 use a XX-NNN-ZZ format, composed of a series of 7 alphanumeric characters: 2 letters, 3 numbers, and then 2 letters. This format is monitored nationwide and car plates are permanent and attached to a single vehicle from its first registration to its disposal. As such, car plates do not need to be changed if the car is sold or if the owner moves to another region within France.
  Cars bought before 2009 can still bear the old format, dating from 1950, if the owner has not moved to a different département since then.
context_section_description: Under the SIV system, registration plates contain seven alphanumeric characters: two letters, a dash, three numbers, a dash and two letters, such as AA-229-AA and no such series as AI-111-AA, AO-111-AA and AU-111-AA, The system is nationwide and chronological. The first car registered in France under the SIV received a AA-001-AA registration plate, the second one AA-002-AA, the third AA-003-AA. The system will be exhausted when ZZ-999-ZZ is reached, which is scheduled to occur after 80 years of use.
  The numbering system goes as follows:
  AA-001-AA to AA-999-AA (numbers evolve first);
  AA-001-AB to AA-999-AZ (then the last letter on the right);
  AA-001-BA to AA-999-ZZ (then the first letter on the right);
  AB-001-AA to AZ-999-ZZ (then the last letter on the left);
  BA-001-AA to ZZ-999-ZZ (then the first letter on the left).
  The SIV format provides , or 277,977,744, different combinations. This figure excludes three letters that are not used: I, O and U, as they can be confused with 1, 0 and V, respectively. It also excludes the SS combination because it is reminiscent of the Nazi organisation and WW in the first group of letters as it indicates a temporary plate. Other combinations of letters that were avoided in the previous system because they sounded vulgar to French speakers, such as KK, PD, PQ, QQ, and WC, were included in the SIV.
  The SIV system does not provide special plates for the government, army, police or any other organisation that had such plates under the previous system. Their vehicles display regular registration plates. The only exception concern temporary plates, which start with WW, and demonstration cars at car dealers, whose plates start with W.
caption: A temporary car plate, starting with WW, with the code for Corrèze (19) and the logo of Limousin region.
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