France
France’s SIV system assigns a registration to a vehicle for life. The number no longer reveals where the car was first registered, but the owner chooses a département identifier for the right-hand band.
The fixed format is two letters, three digits, then two letters: AA-001-AA.
The number runs first, from AA-001-AA through AA-999-AA.
The right-hand pair then advances: AA-001-AB, AA-001-AC and onward.
After AA-999-ZZ, the left-hand pair advances and the cycle restarts at AB-001-AA.
I, O and U are omitted; SS is excluded and W/WW are reserved for special temporary series.
Colour and suffixes can completely change a plate's meaning.
Black characters on reflective white, with blue bands on both sides.
Pink WW plates make temporary registrations immediately visible and show their expiry on the right.
Silver characters on red identify transit/import use; the right field shows validity rather than a département.
Green plates with orange or white characters identify diplomatic and consular vehicles.
Eligible historic vehicles may display period-correct black plates without blue side bands.
Original vector reconstructions. Small identifying marks are redrawn as reusable vector assets; no plate photographs are used.
Today's SIV is only the latest layer. Older FNI registrations remain legal when the vehicle has never needed conversion.
White or silver characters on black. The final number is the registering département, so moving across a département boundary meant a new registration.
White front, yellow rear. The left Euroband arrived in 1998 and became compulsory for newly issued registrations in 2004.
A white rear plate became permitted in 2007, shortly before SIV replaced the geographic numbering system.
Regional mining districts issued a number followed by a geographic letter code. The plate became mandatory nationwide.
Regional codes were revised and serial ranges expanded as motor traffic grew rapidly.
A new geographic allocation prepared the way for the département-based system familiar to later generations.
The Fichier national des immatriculations used one to four digits, one to three letters and the département code.
New registrations used white at the front and yellow at the rear. The Euroband became compulsory for newly issued numbers in 2004.
AA-001-AA starts a single national sequence. The registration now stays with the vehicle for life.
Garage W and provisional WW plates switch to a pink background; WW plates replace the territorial panel with an expiry date.
Some are current, some historic. Together they explain the red, green, blue and service plates that sit outside the everyday sequence.
Jasper green. CD and CMD use orange characters; C and K use white.
Silver characters on red, with a validity date instead of the territorial identifier.
Red TTQ and TTW plates historically identify Haute-Savoie and Pays de Gex free-zone use.
French military personnel in Germany once used blue plates; today the series is white and begins RF.
Purpose-built military vehicles retain a separate coded series and service emblem.
A famous former special mark; official state vehicles now normally use the standard SIV series.
The owner may choose any identifier. The matching official regional mark must appear above it, and front and rear plates must match.
Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon (975), Saint-Barthélemy (977) and Saint-Martin (978) use distinct local arrangements and are not included in the current département identifier directory above.
The département on the plate does not need to match the owner’s address.
A vehicle keeps its SIV number when it changes hands.
The regional mark and code must be part of the plate itself—territorial stickers are not permitted.