Vehicle registration plates are mandatory number plates used to display the registration mark of a vehicle registered in France. They have existed in the country since 1901. It is compulsory for most motor vehicles used on public roads to display them.

In French, vehicle registration plates are called or . The latter makes a reference to the national mining administration, which was responsible for issuing the plates in the early 20th century.Since 1901, various systems have been successively introduced, the most recent dating from 2009. The registration plates issued since 2009 use a XX-NNN-ZZ format, composed of a series of 7 alphanumeric characters: 2 letters, 3 numbers, and then 2 letters (e.g. AB-126-FD). This format is monitored nationwide and car plates are permanent and attached to a single vehicle from its first registration to its disposal. As such, car plates do not need to be changed if the car is sold or if the owner moves to another region within France.

Cars bought before 2009 can still bear the old format, dating from 1950, if the owner has not moved to a different département since then. Unlike the new one, the 1950 format is geographical. Until 2009, car plates had to be changed whenever the owner moved to another département or bought a car from a person living in a different département. The 1950 format uses a N X NN format, composed of a series of one to four numbers, one to three letters and a two-digit code corresponding to the département where the car is registered. The international code for French plates is "F" (France). Some older French number plates did not have any blue stripes.

Current scheme

SIV

Called ("vehicle registration system"), shortened to SIV, the current scheme was adopted in France in 2009 (15 April for new vehicles; 15 October for second-hand ones). It was inspired by the "AA-111-AA" format that was successfully adopted in Italy in 1994. Under the SIV scheme, car plates are permanent and do not need to be changed if the car owner sells it or moves to a different region.

The SIV system was adopted to ease vehicle registration and law enforcement on roads because it is fully monitored by computer and administered nationwide. The SIV database can easily be combined with other computer files. The SIV was also implemented to replace the 1950 format, which was running out of character combinations. Had it been maintained, it would have been completely exhausted by 2025 for Paris, the most populous French département. The SIV scheme started in 2004 for motorcycles with an engine capacity under 50 cc. However, these vehicles carry plates with fewer characters, such as AA-11-A.

Due to the 2008 financial crisis, the introduction of the new plates was postponed from 1 January 2009 until 15 April 2009 for all new cars. It was again postponed until 15 October 2009 for all other vehicles due to computer bugs in the SIV system.

Colour and dimensions

Registration plates issued after 2009 must be displayed in accordance with the 9 February 2009 Order (). They must be made of reflex-reflecting material, white at the front and rear, with black non-reflecting characters. Characters may be displayed on one or two lines. The industry standard size number plate is or if it includes a horizontal cartouche to display information about the car dealer. The left side of the plate must contain a blue band with the letter F for France under the stars of the European flag. A similar band must be present on the right side to display a department code and the symbol of the region where the is located.

The positioning of the characters on the plate is fully regulated but there is no official typeface. The law provides guidelines: characters must be sans serif, monospaced and without any opening on closed characters.

In some cases, colours may vary. Vehicles registered as classic cars can carry black plates with silver or white characters and without the blue bands on the sides. Vehicles in transit on French territory must carry a red plate with white characters. Instead of the regional code, the right hand band displays the expiry date of the plate. Vehicles purchased in the free trade zones of Gex and Savoie also carry red plates, but with the regional code. Diplomatic vehicles carry green plates with orange or white characters. Vehicles owned by the French Forces and Civilian Elements stationed in Germany (FFECSA) carry a pale blue plate with white characters. Since 2026, temporary plates have a pink background, with the regional code replaced by the expiration date, in an attempt to simplify road checks.

Motorcycles and mopeds have to display a rear plate. Motorcycle plates have the same colour and general design as the usual vehicle plates.

Numbering

Under the SIV system, registration plates contain seven alphanumeric characters: two letters, a dash, three numbers, a dash and two letters, such as AA-001-AA and no such series as AA-001-AI/AA-001-AO/AA-001-AU or AI-001-AA/AO-001-AA/AU-001-AA. The system is nationwide and chronological. The first car registered in France under the SIV, a Mazda 6 station wagon, received a AA-001-AA registration plate, the second one AA-002-AA, the third AA-003-AA. The system will be exhausted when ZZ-999-ZZ is reached, which is scheduled to occur after 80 years of use.

The numbering system goes as follows: AA-001-AA to AA-999-AA (numbers evolve first); AA-001-AB to AA-999-AZ (then the last letter on the right); AA-001-BA to AA-999-ZZ (then the first letter on the right); AB-001-AA to AZ-999-ZZ (then the last letter on the left); BA-001-AA to ZZ-999-ZZ (then the first letter on the left).

The SIV format provides , or 277,977,744, different combinations. This figure excludes three letters that are not used: I, O and U, as they can be confused with 1, 0 and V, respectively. It also excludes the SS combination because it is reminiscent of the Nazi organisation and WW in the first group of letters as it indicates a temporary plate. Other combinations of letters that were avoided in the previous system because they sounded vulgar to French speakers, such as KK, PD, PQ, QQ, and WC, were included in the SIV.

Here's what the numbering system would go with restrictions: After HZ-999-ZZ, the system will skip to JA-001-AA. After NZ-999-ZZ, the system will skip to PA-001-AA. After SR-999-ZZ, the system will skip to ST-001-AA. After TZ-999-ZZ, the system will skip to VA-001-AA.

The SIV system does not provide special plates for the government, army, police or any other organisation that had such plates under the previous system. Their vehicles display regular registration plates. The only exception concern temporary plates, which start with WW, and demonstration cars at car dealers, whose plates start with W.

Regional codes

As it is nationwide, the SIV system does not use geographical codes as did the previous system. At first, it was not planned to display the departments' codes on the new plates. Because of that, the new format encountered strong opposition. Parliamentarians from both the majority and opposition lobbied at the National Assembly to keep what they saw as a part of national identity. In 2008, several months before the SIV system was implemented, the Minister of the Interior acknowledged the attachment French people had to their départements and decided to add a blue band on the right to display geographical codes.

As it is not used for administrative purposes, car owners can choose the code of the they want, no matter where they reside. The code must be displayed together with the symbol of the corresponding region. It is forbidden to display the symbol of a region the chosen does not belong to. The code may be changed at any time without any change in the registration documents.

The codes are also used for other purposes, such as statistics and postcodes. They contain two numbers, such as 05 for Hautes-Alpes and 67 for Bas-Rhin. Some exceptions exist however. The two départements of Corsica, Corse-du-Sud and Haute-Corse, use 2A and 2B because they were created only in 1976 when the Corse département (20) was split in two. The overseas départements have three-digit codes, starting with 97, which was originally the single code for them all. For instance the code for Guadeloupe is 971 and the one for Martinique is 972.

Shortly before the introduction of the system French regions were asked which symbol they wanted to represent them on car plates. The vast majority chose their logos, except Alsace, which opted for its coat of arms, and Brittany and Corsica, which chose their flags.

Previous scheme

FNI

Before the introduction of the current format in 2009, French cars were registered under the FNI system (, "National Car Registration Record"). The FNI format was adopted in 1950 and amended several times due to its long operating life.

Vehicle owners had to re-register their vehicle if they relocated permanently to another . There used to be an annual tax on cars, called the , whose rate depended on the . This tax now exists only for corporate-owned vehicles (and there exist exemptions for small numbers of vehicles); it is thus no longer important to know the department of a car on sight. Furthermore, computerised files allow large national databases to be maintained without the need for them to be split at local level.

A side effect of the vehicle tax system was that many corporations registered their vehicles in departments, such as Oise (60), with lower rates. Regulations aimed at preventing such schemes were passed in 1999.

Colour and dimensions

As with the SIV format, plates issued under the FNI system were closely regulated by law. They had to meet a number of requirements about size, shape, colour, typeface and material. From the adoption of the format in 1950 until its withdrawal in 2009, several laws and orders came to modify regulations on plates. For instance, the blue band with the European stars and the letter F was introduced in 1998 and became compulsory on new plates in 2004.

At the beginning, plates were black with white or silver characters. Reflective plates were introduced in 1963 but only became compulsory on new cars in 1993. The new plates had to be white on the front and yellow on the rear until 2007, when white rear plates were allowed.

Numbering

The FNI format was chronological, as is the SIV system. It was also regional, which means that it evolved independently in each . Registration plates contained from 4 to 8 alphanumeric characters split into three parts by spaces. The first space could be omitted on registration plates issued after 1996.

First part: one to four numbers; Second part: one to three letters; Third part: the code for departments.

Numbering went as follows: numbers evolved first, starting from 1, until they reached 999. Then letters evolved. The first car registered in Paris had a 1 A 75 car plate, and the second one 2 A 75. Once 999 A 75 had been reached, the following car was registered under 1 B 75. The format would have been exhausted in Paris once 999 ZZZ 75 had been reached.

The following chronology summarises the numbering system. Most of the chose to have four numbers on their plates once the letters reached QA, in order to have more combinations available. The "00" at the end stands for the geographical code. 1 A 00 to 999 Z 00; 1 AA 00 to 999 PZ 00; 1 QA 00 to 9999 ZZ 00; 1 AAA 00 to 999 ZZZ 00.