Almost two months ago, the new Autogespot website came online. This website made it possible to see in which places a specific car is spotted. The only thing we need for this is a correctly entered license plate. This goes wrong very often so we will explain how to enter license plates on a correct way.
It is important to fill in the correct license plate. Lately we have seen that not everyone is doing this on the right way. Because it is impossible to explain the license plates of every country we made a selection of the most common countries. These countries will be explained next few weeks in several articles. We can already give you a general advice. Many license plates have dashes between the numbers and letters. You don’t have to enter these dashes! It is just about the numbers and letters.
The Netherlands
We all will probably know the Dutch license plates. The yellow plates nowadays have the following order; two numbers – three letters – one number. This are the characters we would love to see filled in on the upload form. A few years ago, the Dutch license plates had the following order; two numbers – two letters – two letters. The Dutch license plates always have six characters. Even the cars with a so calles ‘grey license plate’ this are cars registered on a company’s name have six characters just like classics and cars from a dealership.
Belgium
Just like the Netherlands and every member of the European Union, Belgium has a license plate with the flag and the letter(s) of the abbreviation of the country since November 2010. You don’t have to fill in these letters when you are uploading a spot. Personalized license plates start with the number nine which means you have to fill in 9001PA in case of the example below. In Belgium it is about the red letters. When you spot a car with a diplomatic license plate, the letters CD are in green on the license plates. You also have license plates where the blue letters EUR are in the middle of a circle of stars, followed by four numbers. In this we case you only have to fill in the numbers. Besides this there are also plates from dealerships. These with plates with green letter have seven characters, nowadays starting with the number one, followed by the letter Z. Older Belgium license plates, before the one and nine were added on the license plates, had three letters and three numbers.
France
Until a few years ago, France license plates had two colours. The license plates on the front of the car were white and the plates on the back of the car were yellow. Nowadays both sides are white. The current generation of license plates (as you can see on picture two) consist two letters – three numbers – two letters. These seven characters have to be filled in. On the right side we find two numbers in a blue strip. Deze two numbers show the department which is preferred by the owner. In this case it is 75 which is Paris. A few years ago, the department was really part of the license plate as we can see on the license plate of the Vanquish below. The license plates had eight characters. When you spot a car with such a license plate you have to fill in the two (or three) numbers – three letters – two numbers.
Luxemburg
The license plates in Luxembourg are yellow with black letters. You only have to fill in the black characters. Sometimes this are four or five numbers, but you also see license plates with two letters added.
Spain
Almost all Spanish license plates are white and consist seven characters. The license plate begins with four numbers and are followed by three letters. You can see an example below. You have to fill in all the seven characters when you upload a spot. Just like every other country you don’t have to fill in the abbreviation of the country. Next to that you also have temporary license plates. These so called T-license plates are mostly used when cars are imported from foreign countries. These license plates consist eight characters of which the last three are letters. After the letter T, four numbers follow. In contradiction to the regular license plates, the temporary plates don’t have a European flag. You have to fill in the eight black characters on the white license plate. As example we have the second picture below. Besides these plates there are also other temporary plates in Spain. These plates are green with white letters and can be used by the owner pending for a regular license plate.
Regular Spanish license plates
Temporary license plates
License plates for cars from the period 1971-2000
In the example above we see an old license plate from Spain. This type of license plates are used between 1971 and 2000. When you spotted a car with this kind of license plate, you have to fill in the black characters. The length will vary because the first letter(s) stands for the place where the car is registered. In the example above it is Málaga. Especially classics have these kind of license plates.
Portugal
As indication of the country the car comes from, Portugal uses the letter P. The Portuguese license plates are white and have six characters. These are in the following order: Two numbers – two letters – two numbers. You have to fill in all of these characters.
Andorra
Andorra’s license plates are very simple. They exist by a letter followed by four numbers. Before the letter, the Royal Arms of Andorra is marked and below that we read 'Principat d'Andorra'. Andorra isn’t an official member of the European Union so this logo isn’t included at the license plates of cars from Andorra. You have to fill in all the 5 characters.
Italy
We move to the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, to Italy. Of course we all know the Italian license plates. These two white plates only have black letters. The characters are in these order: two letters – three numbers – two letters. At the left side we see the logo of the Europian Union with the letter I for Italy. At the right side we see a blue field with two letters and sometimes an abbreviation. This stands for the region where the car is registered. However, we see this fewer the last couple of years, because it’s optional. But when you spot a car which has that blue field in the right, please don’t fill in the characters of it. We would like to see the seven characters in the white field.
It is possible that you see a car with a white license plate and black characters. Their order is two letters – three numbers – two letters and start with EE. These are Italian temporary license plates and haven’t got European indications of the country. The letters EE stand for Escursionisti Esteri. When you look very good you’ll see a little I in the oval.
Liechtenstein
License plates from Liechtenstein are countable on one hand. You wouldn’t say that, but they almost are. Liechtenstein is a real fiscal paradise and many rich people register their exclusive toy in this country. The black plates with white characters all start with FL. This stands for Fürstentum Liechtenstein, followed by four or five numbers. We’d like to see the whole combination with six or seven characters filled in when you spot a car from Liechtenstein. Just like Switzerland, Liechtenstein isn’t a member of the European Union.
Austria
The Austrian license plates start with one or two letters to show where the car is registered. S stands for Salzburg and W for Vienna. After this, the Royal Mark of the city or region where the car is registered follows. It is impossible to say how many characters you have to fill in, because the amount of characters is various. We would like to see all the black ones, just everything from the indication of the city or region to the last character. With the personalized plates it is the same story. You have to pay 245 Euros to get such a plate and than all the characters after the Royal Mark can be personalized. For instance, the license plate 4-CREWE-4, owned by the Bentley-dealer of Vienna.
Austria also has temporary license plates. These are blue. Dealer license plates can be recognized by the green colour.
Vaste kentekenplaat uit Oostenrijk
Persoonlijk Oostenrijks kenteken
In the example from above you see a personalized license plate. It must have one number or more.
Switzerland
All Swiss license plates are white with black characters. They don’t have a European country-indication, because Switzerland isn’t a member of the European Union. The flag of Switzerland is always at the left side of the license plates, followed by the two letters which indicate the canton where the car is registered. There are 26 of them, the best known on Autogespot will of course be GE (Geneva), LU (Luzern) and TI (Ticino).
There is a maximum of six numbers behind the abbreviation of the canton. For as far as we know, two numbers is the minimum. That means we want to see at least 4 characters and maximum 8 characters filled in at the spots.
Germany
We end the first part of this article with Germany. Most of the German license plates are white and have black letters. Also there is an European country-indication, Germany uses the letter D. We also can find the Landkreis where the car is registered. We all know Berlin (B), Köln (K) and Düsseldorf (D), with only one letter. After this, there will follow one or two stickers that this car has passed an emission and safety test. Everything after the sticker can be personalized if you want to. Two letters, and a maximum of four letters. So, behind the stickers, there are not more than 6 characters. We want you to fill in all the characters, including the Landkreis.
Germany has a lot special license plates. Germany is one of the few countries allowing an ‘umlaut’ in their license plates: Ä, Ö and Ü. In Germany, the O and zero are used both. Make sure you fill in the correct character! Het zero has an interrupted stripe on the right side of the number, you don’t see a ‘whole number’, a little piece is missing. The letter O is just like we wrote it down here. The only thing you must not forget, license plates with red characters don’t have an interrupted zero. These license plates belong to dealerships and look just like the example below.
White license plates with black letters and a red part on the right side are export plates from Germany. These Ausfuhrkennzeichen have the expiring date of the Insurance of the car. For Autogespot it is important to fill in the entire license plate when you want to upload a spot with a license plate like the one below. When you want to upload the example below you have to fill in ‘HD821R’.
Ausfuhrkennzeichen
This was the first part in our lessons about all European license plates. Because it is impossible to place them all in one article we will split them in to multiple articles.
When you have spotted a car with a license plate of which you’re not sure how to fill it in, don’t hesitate and send us an email! We rather answer this email than we have you filling in a wrong license plate. When you did fill in a license plate incorrect you can report this on the website of Autogespot. You have to be logged in to do this. You have to go to the page of the spot and on top of the page you click on ‘Report spot’. Via ‘wrong name’ you can fill in the correct license plate.