Vehicle registration plates of Algeria

Algerian registration plate

Algerian registration plates are manufactured according to the same standards as their French counterparts, using the same font and dimensions although there has been a recent tendency to apply custom typefaces (Impact and Century Gothic have been observed).[1]

Standard issue plates are white with black digits (affixed to the front of the vehicle) and yellow with black digits (mounted onto the rear of the vehicle). Being composed solely of numbers, they are one of the few vehicle registration plates which can accurately be referred to as 'number plates'.

The registration mark takes the form of three groups of digits separated by a space (early plates were separated with a hyphen[2]). Since the late-1990s,[3] the first group of numbers is composed of 5 digits (including leading zeroes earlier plates have up to three digits with no leading zeroes), which make up the vehicle's actual registration/serial number. The next group is formed of 3 digits, and is used to identify the vehicle class and year of manufacture (e.g. 198 denotes a private vehicle manufactured in 1998). A two-digit suffix on the plate identifies the wilaya (Arabic: ولاية) or province in which the vehicle was first registered.

Example of front and rear plates on a private vehicle manufactured in 1963, and registered in Blida

909-163-09
909-163-09

Example of front and rear plates on a private vehicle manufactured in 2001, and registered in Médéa

00174 101 27
00174 101 27

Diplomatic plates

Diplomatic vehicles are issued with plates featuring three groups of black digits, separated by hyphens, on a light teal background. The first group are the vehicle's actual registration/serial number (up to 3 digits in length); the second is composed of two digits indicating whether the vehicle belongs to a diplomat or embassy staff. The final two digits identify the embassy itself (e.g. 27 for Italy; 37 for Norway, &c.)

Example of front and rear plates on a diplomatic vehicle belonging to the Italian embassy

679-66-27
679-66-27

Table of numerical suffixes[4]

Suffix Wilaya
01 Adrar
02 Ech Cheliff
03 Laghouat
04 Oum el Bouaghi
05 Batna
06 Béjaïa
07 Biskra
08 Béchar
09 Blida
10 Bouira
11 Tamanrasset
12 Tébessa
13 Tlemcen
14 Tiaret
15 Tizi Ouzou
16 Algiers
17 Djelfa
18 Djidjelli
19 Sétif
20 Saïda
21 Skikda
22 Sidi Bel Abbès
23 Annaba
24 Guelma
25 Qasentina
26 Médéa
27 Mostaganem
28 M'Sila
29 Mascara
30 Ouargla
31 Oran
32 El Bayadh
33 Illizi
34 Bordj Bou Arréridj
35 Boumrdès
36 El Tarf
37 Tindouf
38 Tissemsilt
39 El Oued
40 Khenchela
41 Souk Ahras
42 Tipaza
43 Mila
44 Aïn Defla
45 Naama
46 Aïn Témouchent
47 Ghardaïa
48 Relizane

References