The People's Republic of China's civilian motor vehicle license plate refers to the legal symbol registered by the statutory authorities for civilian motor vehicles permitted to travel on roads within the territory of the People's Republic of China, belonging to the vehicle registration plates of China. License plates are generally hung at specific locations on motor vehicles, with the number being the registration number of the motor vehicle. The coding system and format currently used have been in use since 1992, also known as the '92 style license plate, and have been revised in 2008 and 2010. New energy vehicle license plates began to be issued on December 1, 2016, initially piloted in five cities: Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuxi, Jinan, and Shenzhen.[1] The pilot issuance area has since expanded to other cities nationwide.
On August 12, 2002, Beijing, Tianjin, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen piloted the registration of 2002-style motor vehicle license plates, but emergency issuance was halted on August 22, 2002.
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, various local Public security bureau (China) agencies began issuing vehicle license plates, but the standards and numbering methods varied from place to place. In October 1950, automobile license plates were officially issued, using sequential motor vehicle license plates, with numbers arranged from small to large based on provinces. Starting from 1960, the standardized the size, colors, and materials of license plates, and arranged them according to the sequence of provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions nationwide. Sequential motor vehicle license plates went through four generations.
In August 1986, the Ministry of Public Security began issuing the fifth generation of motor vehicle license plates. This type of license plate, imitating vehicle registration plates of Japan, is divided into two rows. The characters in the first row are smaller, indicating the issuing authority in the format of "provincial-level administrative region name + two-digit area code", with the area code sequence roughly similar to the current "92 style" license plate area code sequence. The second row consists of 5 digits, a mix of Arabic numerals and Latin letters. In terms of plate color, small car plates are green with white letters, large car plates are red with white letters, foreign vehicle plates are black with red letters, and instructor vehicle plates are blue with white letters. Since this type of license plate was first issued in 1986, it is also known as the "86 style".
In 1992, the Ministry of Public Security began piloting the 1992-style motor vehicle license plates in cities like Urumqi and Daqing (the types of license plates currently issued), and nationwide issuance began in 1994.
In August 2002, Beijing, Tianjin, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen piloted the "2002" motor vehicle license plates, covering four types of vehicles: large cars, small cars, motorcycles, and mopeds. These license plates allowed vehicle owners to customize their plate numbers, which consisted of six Latin letters or digits, increasing the number capacity by over 100 times. The plates also incorporated improved anti-counterfeiting technology and were managed digitally via computer systems. The license plates contained an embedded vehicle identification code that was bound to the vehicle and could not be separated from it. The pilot issuance was initially planned to run from August 12 to December 31 in the aforementioned areas, but it was halted after just 10 days due to "technical reasons." Subsequent vehicle transfers would revert to using the '92 style license plates. It is said that the current traffic control monitoring system cannot recognize traffic violations committed by vehicles with the '02 style license plates.[2] [3]
On October 6, 2008, several cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, began issuing personalized motor vehicle license plates. The display format of these plates is the same as the 1992-style motor vehicle license plates, but the last five characters can be chosen by the vehicle owner, with different coding rules in each location. For example, Beijing only allows four digits and one Latin letter,[4] while Shenzhen allows up to two Latin letters. The original method of selecting license plate numbers also continued to be used alongside the personalized plate number option.
On November 21, 2016, the Ministry of Public Security announced that starting December 1, 2016, pilot issuance of new energy vehicle license plates would begin in five cities: Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuxi, Jinan, and Shenzhen. Based on public opinion collected by the Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security from April to May 2016, the design with the highest votes was selected as the final version. New energy vehicle license plate numbers have one more digit than regular vehicle license plates, making them six digits long. During the pilot period, newly purchased new energy vehicles in the five pilot cities would be issued new energy vehicle license plates upon registration. For already registered new energy vehicles, owners could choose to replace their old plates with the new ones voluntarily. Outside the pilot cities, new energy vehicles that were newly purchased and registered would still receive the '92 style license plates. The Ministry of Public Security also planned to research improvements to the design of regular vehicle license plates.[5]
Starting at 9 a.m. on December 1, the first new energy vehicle license plates were issued in the five pilot cities: 苏A·D09999 (Nanjing), 苏B·D00100 (Wuxi), 沪A·D00806 (Shanghai), 粤B·F03030 (Shenzhen), and 鲁A·D11111 (Jinan). As of August 2017, 76,000 new energy vehicle license plates had been issued in the five pilot cities. According to the Ministry of Public Security's plan, beginning in November 2017, new energy vehicle license plates would be issued in Baoding (Hebei), Changchun (Jilin), Fuzhou (Fujian), Qingdao (Shandong), Zhengzhou (Henan), Zhongshan (Guangdong), Liuzhou (Guangxi), Chongqing, Chengdu (Sichuan), and Kunming (Yunnan). By the end of December 2017, besides the direct-controlled municipalities, provincial capitals, and autonomous region capitals, at least one to two cities in each province (or region) would start issuing new energy vehicle license plates.[6] By the first half of 2018, all cities nationwide would fully implement the issuance of new energy vehicle license plates.[7]
86 Style License Plate (No Longer in Use)In July 1986, mainland China began using the "86 style" license plates. These plates imitated the format of Japanese vehicle license plates and featured the following characteristics:
Format:
Dimensions:
Color Codes:
Transition to 92 Style License Plates:The "92 style" license plates were piloted in 1992 in places like Daqing and Ürümqi. The large-scale replacement of 86 style plates with 92 style plates began around 1994-1995. For Guangdong-Hong Kong and Guangdong-Macao dual plates, the 86 style "Guangdong 02" and "Guangdong 03" plates were used until 2001, when they were replaced by "Yue Z Gang" (粤Z港) and "Yue Z Ao" (粤Z澳) plates.
92 Style License Plates (Current)
See also: Vehicle registration plates of China.
The 1992-style motor vehicle license plates consist of a simplified Chinese character representing a first-level administrative region, followed by a Latin letter and a group of 5 digits or Latin letters. Typically, the Latin letter following the simplified Chinese character determines the importance of the city to the province. For example, "A" is used for vehicles registered in the city center of provincial capitals (or autonomous region capitals) or direct-controlled municipalities. Cities outside the provincial capitals are arranged from "B" onwards based on their economic development level and influence as of 1994. The letters for license plates from special economic zones are usually placed earlier (from "B" to "D", for example, Shenzhen is "粤B"), followed by the sequence based on factors like population of prefecture-level cities. The sequence of license plates in Fujian Province is determined clockwise based on the position of cities on the map, starting from Fuzhou as the origin. Fuzhou is labeled as "A", and then cities are arranged clockwise on the map starting from Fuzhou, from B (Putian) to J (Ningde). The sequence of license plates in Hubei Province is determined by the time when the city was last under provincial administration, with Wuhan as "A", Huangshi (1950) as "B", Shiyan (1973) as "C", and Shashi, which was under provincial administration in 1949 but later changed to municipal administration and reverted to provincial administration in 1979, as "D", and so on. Generally, cities outside directly administered municipalities usually correspond to only one letter for license plates, but a few county-level cities or districts in some provinces may have different letters from their prefecture-level cities, usually because they were initially classified as prefecture-level cities when the plates were issued but later did not have the same letters as their prefecture-level cities (for example, Foshan in Guangdong Province has three different letters for license plates: "E", "X", and "Y" (with X and Y discontinued since February 2018); Kunming in Yunnan Province has two letters, A and B, with the latter being the original license plate for Dongchuan City (now Dongchuan District, no longer issued)). Some provinces with many prefecture-level cities may even use up to "Z" (such as Guangdong and Sichuan provinces). Some cities, due to a significant increase in the number of motor vehicles, have found that the existing number ranges no longer meet their needs, so there are situations where two letters for license plates coexist (for example, Qingdao in Shandong Province has B and U).
Additionally, to avoid confusion with the numbers "1" and "0," the letters "I" and "O" are not used (with some exceptions for license plates of provincial government agencies and public security systems, such as the license plate for the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau "粤O A0001," which is managed like police car license plates). "O" plates, designated for civilian use by police vehicles, were introduced in the 1990s and enjoy priority on the roads. Some local government departments and related units have overused these plates beyond their specified scope, which has been widely criticized by the public. In 2003, Heilongjiang Province was the first to cancel "O" plates, and currently, 22 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions have discontinued these license plates.
The codes on the license plates are as follows:
Special License Plates
In some regions, the following special license plates are also used:
Tractors:
Green License Plates:
Red License Plates:
Low-Speed Trucks, Agricultural Transport Vehicles, Tractor-Transformed Transport Vehicles, Agricultural Passenger Vehicles, etc.:
Green License Plates:
New Energy Vehicle License Plates
New energy vehicle (NEV) license plates have been piloted since December 1, 2016, in Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuxi, Jinan, and Shenzhen. From November 20, 2017, they were also introduced in Baoding, Changchun, Fuzhou, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Zhongshan, Liuzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, and Kunming. By the end of December 2017, in addition to directly administered municipalities, provincial capitals, and autonomous region capitals, each province (region) introduced the new plates in at least 1 to 2 more cities. In the first half of 2018, all cities nationwide fully implemented the new plates.
NEV license plates feature a specialized symbol with a green background, symbolizing electric and new energy. The green circle on the right side contains an electric plug icon, and the colorful part on the left resembles the letter "E" (for electric).
NEV license plates are only applicable to "domestic," "regular," "civilian," and "long-term registered" vehicles. Diplomatic cars (使), consular cars (领), instructor cars (学), police cars (警), Hong Kong vehicles entering the mainland (港), Macau vehicles entering the mainland (澳), Armed Police (WJ), military vehicles, emergency rescue vehicles (应急), and temporary plates (including temporary travel, trial, over-limit, and temporary entry) do not differentiate between new energy and non-new energy vehicles. Therefore, even if these vehicles are new energy, they use their respective traditional license plate formats.
The dimensions of NEV license plates are 480mm x 140mm. The abbreviation for the provincial-level administrative region in Chinese characters measures 45mm x 90mm. Although the characters used in the 1992-style plates (440mm x 140mm) are also 45mm x 90mm, the font style of NEV plates differs from the 1992-style plates. The letters and numbers used in NEV plates are 43mm x 90mm.
The license plate number consists of a simplified Chinese character representing the primary administrative region, followed by a Latin letter and a group of six digits or Latin letters, one more than regular vehicle license plates.
For purely electric vehicles, the letter "D" is given priority, followed by "A," "B," "C," and "E" as the "D" series is exhausted. For non-purely electric vehicles (including plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles), the letter "F" is given priority, followed by "G," "H," "J," and "K" as the "F" series is exhausted.
In small vehicle license plates, the letter representing the energy form is placed in the first position of the plate number, while in large vehicle license plates, it's placed in the last position.
Permissible combinations for small vehicles include: letter representing energy form + five digits; letter representing energy form + any letter (excluding "I" and "O") + four digits.
Permissible combinations for large vehicles include: five digits + letter representing energy form.
The new energy vehicle license plates are produced using pollution-free hot stamping technology, with a green and environmentally friendly production process. They incorporate anti-counterfeiting techniques such as two-dimensional barcodes, hidden watermark patterns, and laser patterns to enhance security measures.
Emergency Rescue Special License Plate
At the end of 2018, a new type of emergency rescue special license plate for fire trucks was introduced, adopting the dimensions of 480×140mm from the new energy vehicle license plate and featuring characters including provincial administrative region abbreviations in Chinese, numbers, and letters. For example: "鄂X5132应急" and "鄂S2256应急". Currently, only two letters are used: "S" which was previously used by the forestry fire department, and "X" used by the fire rescue department. On January 6, 2023, the fire rescue department and the forestry fire department were integrated to establish the National Fire Rescue Bureau. However, there are currently no new regulations in place regarding this, and the spacing of characters on these plates differs from that of new energy vehicle plates.
02 License Plate (No Longer in Use)Starting from August 12, 2002, the "2002" motor vehicle license plates, which were piloted in Beijing, Tianjin, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen, are divided into four types: large-sized cars, small-sized cars, motorcycles, and light motorcycles.
When selecting a plate number, vehicle owners follow the "3+3" principle, where the individual arranges the numbers themselves. After confirming through computer retrieval that the selected plate number has not been used, it is determined as the vehicle's plate number. The plate is then produced on-site by the public security traffic management department and issued immediately.
Plate number combinations include:
Due to controversies arising from the combination of letters and numbers on this standard plate, starting from August 22, 2002, the transportation authorities stopped issuing the 2002 standard plates citing "technical reasons."[8]
Automobiles
Motorcycles
See also: zh.
Automobiles
Motorcycles
C Qiongbei Vehicle Management Office
D Qiongnan Vehicle Management Office
Starting from May 18, 2017, Chongqing implemented a new online appointment service for selecting vehicle license plate numbers. Vehicle owners can now choose license plate numbers from any series labeled A to H across the entire city, without being restricted to specific districts:
A/U Xi'an, including Xixian New Area