As of 14 April 2009, all French vehicle registration plates are issued using the XX-NNN-ZZ format, successfully introduced in Italy in 1994, composed of a series of 7 alphanumeric characters, made up of 2 letters, 3 numbers, and then 2 letters (for instance: AB-123-CD). There is no longer a local département code as in the previous system, but only a sequential number. This number is allocated to a vehicle for its life and does not change if the car is sold or the owner moves. There is an option to include a blue strip on the right of the plate, showing the Département Number of the owner's choice, plus the region logo of the chosen département, although this is not compulsory.[1]
Regular license plates are black-on-white, front and rear. Temporary license plates are colored silver-on-red, both front and rear.[2]
Due to the current economic climate, the introduction of the new plates was postponed from 1 January 2009 until 15 April 2009 for all new cars.[3] It was again postponed until 15 October 2009 for all other vehicles due to computer bugs in the SIV system.[4] Effective 15 October 2009, all vehicles will obtain license numbers according to the new format (provided, for the vehicles that already have a license number, their registration certificate is to be changed, e.g., the owner moves or the vehicle is sold).
The vehicle categories having special license plate numbers prior to the reform (police, administration, or the armed forces) will now be in the general scheme.[5]
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The plate bore a "number" of the following formats: either nnnn LL dd, or nnn LLL dd.
Exceptions to this scheme are:
Vehicle owners had to re-register their vehicle if they relocated permanently to another département. There used to be a once-per year tax on cars, called the vignette, whose rate depended on the department. This tax now exists only for corporate-owned vehicles (and there exist exemptions for small numbers of vehicles); it is thus no longer important to know the department of a car on sight. Furthermore, computerized files allow large national databases to be maintained without the need for them to be split them at local level.
A side effect of the vehicle tax system was that many corporations registered their vehicles in departments, such as Oise (60), with lower rates. Regulations aimed at preventing such schemes were passed in 1999.
Military plates bore an 8-digit number, as well as, generally, the insignia of the branch of the military forces to which they belong:
These concerned civilian vehicles owned by the national government; it did not include local governments.
They were of the form dddL nnnnM.
National police forces were registered using this scheme while municipal police forces were registered using the standard scheme.
* A very original French "plate artiste" : Joel Ducorroy