Mobility

French vehicles have a plate number made up of 7 “alphanumeric” characters, combining Arabic numerals from 1 to 9 and letters of the Latin alphabet, from A to Z. There are, however, some letters you'll never find on these license plates.  

Since 2009, the French have had a license plate number for life, generated automatically by the SIV, or Système d'Immatriculation des Véhicules. As Demotivateur reports, this number consists of two letters, a dash, three digits, a dash and two letters.

However, three vowels will never appear on these plates. These are “I”, “O” and “U”. And the reason these letters are banned is that they can easily be confused with other so-called alphanumeric characters. The I can be confused with the number 1, the U too closely resembles the V and the O with the number 0. 

In France, one letter combination is also forbidden by law: the double “S”, in reference to history. The Agence nationale des titres sécurisés (ANTS) points out that “the Criminal Code punishes the wearing or display of insignia or emblems reminiscent of those of organizations or individuals responsible for crimes against humanity”. 

If you can't choose your registration number in France, it's nevertheless possible to opt for a territorial identifier that doesn't correspond to your place of residence. 

(MH with AsD - Source : Demotivateur - Illustration : Unsplash)