Vehicle registration plates of Vietnam

Updated on Dec 20, 2023

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Vehicle registration plates of Vietnam generally take the form DDL-DDDDD for vehicles. Standard license plates have green characters on white background. Front plates measure 47 × 11 cm, rear ones are 27 × 20. The current scheme for civilian vehicles omits the letters I, J, O, Q and W, with the letter R reserved for trailers, and includes the Vietnamese Đ.

French protectorate

In French Indochina, license plates were white-on-black on XXX1111 type, XXX is location code. 1111 can be anything (serial numbers).

1978–1984

Vietnamese plates in 1978–1984 were white-on-black and similar to previous one, but had 4 digits then 3 letters. 3 letters are city name, but based on Vietnamese language.

1984–2003

From 1984 to 2003 (current version) is black-on-white, then later green-on-white, with city name. Plates were A 1111 format, then 1A 1111 format, then AA 1111 format, then was going to switch to AAA 111 format, but the plan was cancelled. The leading two symbols are two digits, representing the province/municipality. The exact date of format changing is unknown. In 2012 a blue strip with a "VN" will be added on the left-hand side of the plates, as required by the new ASEAN licensing agreement.

The leading two numerals refer to the various provinces and major municipalities of Vietnam, unless they are letters (AA, AB, AC, and so on) which signify that the car belongs to the Ministry of Defence - in which case the plate will be red. Some plates also carry a red two-letter code following the provincial numerals, with "NG" (for ngoại giao) used for a diplomatic or NGO plate and "LD" for a vehicle belonging to a company which is 100% foreign-owned. If a colored letter (A, B, or C) follows the province code, the vehicle belongs to the local government).

Colors

President's cars, Central Government's cars - blue with white

Private vehicles, business cars, taxi - white with black

Military's cars - red with white

Construction vehicles - yellow with black

Diplomat's cars - White with NG wrote in red

Foreigner-owned cars - White with NN wrote in black

Regular plates

The format for regular plates began in 1984, with a modification made in 2010 to increase registration capacity. The system itself resembles an inverted FNI system of France. The registration format of the 2010 system is 12A-345.67, where 12 is the regional code, A is the serial letter, and 345.67 is the registration number. Regular plates have black lettering on white background.

Double-letter serials for special uses also exist for regular plates:

State format

Vehicles of state organizations receive plates with white lettering on blue backgrounds. The format is either 12AB-345.67 or 12A-3456, where 12 is the regional code, AB/A is the serial, 345.67/3456 is the number.

Government format

The government format follows the regular format, but the regional code is changed to 80. |- border="1" | style="background:white; " data-ve-attributes="{"style":"background:white; "}" |80A-1234 |}

Motorcycles

Motorcycles over 50cc receive two-line plates of the 12-A3/456.78 format, which replaced the previous 12-A3/4567 format, with black lettering on white backgrounds. |- border="1" | bgcolor="white" align="center" style="font-size: 14pt; color: black" data-ve-attributes="{"style":"font-size: 14pt; color: black"}" |12-А3 456.78 |} |- border="1" | bgcolor="white" align="center" style="font-size: 14pt; color: black" data-ve-attributes="{"style":"font-size: 14pt; color: black"}" |12-А3 4567 |} Mopeds below 50cc, on the other hand, receive a slightly different 12-AB/345.67 format, also replacing the previous 12-AB/3456 format.

Two-wheel vehicles with electric power source use the 12-MĐ/345.67 format.

345.67

Diplomatic plates

Diplomatic plates have their status codes in red, and the numbers in black on a white background.

Diplomatic personnel based in Hanoi receive the AB-123-45 format, where AB is the status code (either NG or QT), 123 being the country/organization code, and 45 the registration the number. (01 for the head of the diplomatic mission, and 02-99 for the rest).

Consular organizations based in Hanoi receive the 80-AB-123-45 format, where 80 is the code signifying national importance, AB being the status code, 123 the country code, and 45 the number (01 for the head of the organization, 02-99 for other members).

Consular staff of international organizations based outside Hanoi receive a different format of 12-AB-345-67, where 12 is the regional code, AB is the status code, 345 being the country code, and 67 the number.

{| class="wikitable" !Status code !Meaning |- |NG (ngoại giao) |Diplomatic |- |NN (người nước) |Foreigners without diplomatic status |- |QT (quốc tế) |International organizations |} {| border="1" | bgcolor="white" align="center" style="font-size: 14pt; color: black" data-ve-attributes="{"style":"font-size: 14pt; color: black"}" href="Hà Tĩnh Province" |12-NN-655.11 |}

Military format

Military vehicles bear red plates with white lettering in the format of AB-12-34, where AB is the unit code, and 12-34 being the number.

Military motorcycles receive the two-line AB/123 format, where AB is the unit code, and 123 the number. Mopeds receive an additional letter A after the number.

Temporary plates

Temporary plates are two-line plates with the T12/345.67 format, where T signifies the temporary nature of the plate, 12 being the regional code and 345.67 being the number.

Codes

The provincial/municipal codes are listed here:

References

Vehicle registration plates of Vietnam Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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