Vehicle registration plates of Vietnam

Vehicle registration plates of Vietnam generally take the form DDLL-DDD.DD for vehicles. Standard license plates have black characters on white background. Front plates measure 47 × 11 cm, rear ones are 27 × 20. In 2020 and 2021, both plates measure 6 x 12. 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 character Đ.
In French Indochina, license plates were white-on-black on XXX1111 type, XXX is location code. 1111 can be anything (serial numbers).
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.
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.
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:
After 1 August 2020, all commercial vehicles in Vietnam must change to a yellow color vehicle plate.
Vehicles of state organizations receive plates with white lettering on blue backgrounds. The format is either NNL-NNN.NN or NNL-NNNN, where NN is the regional code, L is the serial, NNN.NN/NNNN is the number.
Motorcycles receive two-line plates of the NN-LL/NNN.NN (or equivalently NNLL-NNN.NN on registration certificate), which replaced the previous NN-LN/NNNN and NN-LN/NNN.NN format (which are still effective in circulation), with black lettering on white backgrounds.
Two-wheel vehicles registered before August 15, 2023, with electric power source use the NN-MĐN/NNN.NN format.
Diplomatic plates have their status codes in red, and the numbers in black on a white background.
Temporary plates are two-line plates with the TNN-NNN.NN format, where T signifies the temporary nature of the plate, NNN.NN being the regional code and NNN.NN being the number.
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.
The provincial/municipal codes are listed here: