page_title: Vehicle registration plates of Germany
section_title: Special codes
hierarchical_section_title: Vehicle registration plates of Germany / Format / Special codes
context_page_description: German vehicle registration plates indicate the place where the vehicle bearing them was once registered. Whenever German owners of a motor vehicle change their main place of residence within Germany or buy a car from a person living in a different city or district they have to have the vehicle documentation changed accordingly. In the process owners may opt for new licence plates that reflect their place of residence or simply retain the old identifier and plates. The states of Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and North Rhine-Westphalia were the first ones to create laws so that owners were no longer obliged to change licence plates if they were changing residence within the state. A nationwide law has since been passed by the federal government and went into effect on 1 January 2015. From this time on, it is generally not possible any more to tell the owner's place of residence just from looking at the plates. Nonetheless it is a widespread habit in Germany, even a children's game when travelling, to guess "where that vehicle is from".
context_section_description: Certain types of vehicle bear special codes:
   
  Classic cars (known in German by the pseudo-English expression Oldtimer) can get an H (historisch, historic) at the end of the plate, such as K-AA 100H in order to preserve the so-called "vehicle of cultural value" (kraftfahrtechnisches Kulturgut). It also includes a flat tax of around €190 per year. It is popular to choose the digits so that they indicate the car's year of manufacture. The requirements for a vehicle for an H-Plate are:
  The first documented registration was at least 30 years ago.
  The car must be in mostly original and preservation worthy condition. Preservation worthy means a grade C by popular car grading standards. The older the car, the more signs of usage it can show. This purely concerns the car's appearance; the road worthiness is established by separate mandatory safety inspections. Universally accepted modifications include changes that benefit safety, such as seat belts and disc brakes, and environmental friendliness, such as catalytic converters and LPG conversions (if invisible from the outside). Further modifications that are generally accepted are those contemporary of the car's first registration (plus and minus 10 years, burden of proof lies with the owner through historic material such as photographs) and new paintjobs of any colour, including two-tone paint if originally offered and historic company logos, but no murals or custom patterns.  Note that any pre-1994 vehicle registered in Germany using the old style post 1956 plate can still display their original post 1956 style number without having to change to the post 1994 eurostyle plate. For example, with a 1989 Ford Fiesta purchased that year and still owned by the same owner, plates issued in 1989 using the old style font are still valid and do not need to be changed to a eurostyle plate unless the car is sold to another individual in Germany.
   
  Plug-in electric vehicles. The 2015 Electric Mobility Act authorised issuing special licence plates for plug-in electric vehicles to allow proper identification to avoid abuses of these privileges. The special licence plate adds the letter "E" at the end of the licence number. Owners of all-electric cars and plug-in hybrids with a minimum all-electric range of 30 km (19 mi) can apply for the special licence. The minimum range for eligible plug-in hybrids goes up to 40 km (25 mi) from 1 January 2018.
  Cars (or more often, motorbikes) with seasonal number plates have two numbers at the end of the plate indicating the months between which they are registered to drive, with the licence being valid from the start of the upper month until the end of the lower month. This results in lower car taxes, as well lower insurance premiums.
   
  Until the legal reforms of 2006, Official cars such as police, fire fighting and municipality vehicles did not carry a letter after the sticker, such as M-1234. These included:
  vehicles of the district government: 1-199, 1000-1999, 10000-19999
  vehicles of the local government (for example: fire brigade): 200-299, 2000-2999, 20000-29999, 300-399
  police:  3000-3999, 7000-7999, 30000-39999, 70000-79999
  disaster relief (mostly changed "THW", see below): 8000-8999, 80000-89999
  This style of plate is no longer issued, but many official vehicles which were registered before 2006 still carry this type of plate.
  A similar style of issue is used by some municipalities to consular or diplomatic vehicles in the form Aaa-9NNn (example: D-921). Unlike the other style of diplomatic/consular plates issued in Berlin and Bonn, this plate does not indicate the nationality of the mission.
  Vehicles which are exempt from vehicle taxes (for example ambulances, tractors, agricultural trailers, trailers for boats or trailers for gliders) have green print on a white background plate. Regular trailers for lorries can be exempted from tax if the owner agrees to pay an increased tax on the vehicle which tows the trailer. There is also a tax exemption for trailers for which the owner agrees to hand over his trailer without payment to the armed forces (
caption: Special plate (red colour, old DIN-style) for dealer's cars for test drives. (Registration office: Würzburg)
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