Vehicle registration plates of France

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 (e.g. AB-126-FD). 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 départment since then. Unlike the new one, the 1950 format is geographical. Until 2009, car plates had to be changed whenever the owner moved to another département or bought a car from a person living in a different départment. The 1950 format uses a N X NN format, composed of a series of one to four numbers, one to three letters and a two-digit code corresponding to the département where the car is registered.

Called système d'immatriculation des véhicules ("vehicle registration system"), shortened in SIV, the current scheme was adopted in France in 2009 (15 April for new vehicles; 15 October for second-hand ones). It was inspired by the "AA-111-AA" format that was successfully adopted in Italy in 1994. Under the SIV scheme, car plates are permanent and do not need to be changed if the car owner sells it or moves to a different region.

The SIV system was adopted to ease vehicle registration and law enforcement on roads because it is fully monitored by computer and administered nationwide. The SIV database can easily be combined with other computer files. The SIV was also implemented to replace the 1950 format, which was running out of character combinations. Had it been maintained, it would have been completely exhausted by 2025 for Paris, the most populous French département. The SIV scheme started in 2004 for motorcycles with an engine capacity under 50 cc. However, these vehicles carry plates with fewer characters, such as AA-11-A.

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