# Brazil license plate: PNU standard

> The Brazil PNU standard license plate: format LLL-9999, for example MTX-2847, 1990 to 2020, car, van, truck, bus, trailer, and semitrailer.

Page: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/brazil/pnu-standard-1990 · Markdown version of the HTML page, which is canonical. Site map: https://vehiclesdb.com/llms.txt · Terms of use: https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/terms

Part of [Brazil license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/brazil) (11 registration series).

![Brazil license plate, PNU standard (1990 to 2020)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/br/br-pnu-standard-1990/brazil-license-plate-pnu-standard.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `LLL-9999` (L is any letter, 9 any digit) |
| Years | 1990–2020 |
| Class | standard |
| Issued for | car, van, truck, bus, trailer, semitrailer |
| Plate size | 400 × 130 mm |
| Other sizes |  |
| Colours | background #8F999F; characters #1C1C1C |
| Rear plate differs from the front | no |
| Checking a registration | The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued. |
| Series id | `br-pnu-standard-1990` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/brazil/pnu-standard-1990) |

The three letters were the state, by allocation: each DETRAN drew on a reserved block — Paraná opened the system with AAA to BEZ, São Paulo held BFA to GKI, Rio de Janeiro KMF to LVE — so the letters told you where a car was first registered.

Sources:

- [Res. 231/2007 consolidated: art. 1 (3 letters + 4 digits), art. 1 § 1 (tarjeta), art. 3 (colour follows category, combination does not change), art. 4 (series allocation delegated), Anexo items 1, 2, 4, 5.1, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11](https://web.archive.org/web/20140815083608/http://www.denatran.gov.br/download/Consolidadas/cons231.pdf)
- [Res. 45/98 art. 1: the same grammar, seven years earlier, in the first CTB-era plate resolution](https://www.gov.br/transportes/pt-br/assuntos/transito/conteudo-contran/resolucoes/resolucao045_98.zip)
- [art. 2 § 3 names it the 'Placa Nacional Única (PNU)' and gives the printed form 'AAA-1111'; art. 57: PNU plates run to scrapping](https://www.in.gov.br/en/web/dou/-/resolucao-contran-n-969-de-20-de-junho-de-2022-410033795)
- [in.gov.br](https://www.in.gov.br/en/web/dou/-/resolucao-n-780-de-26-de-junho-de-2019-179414765)

## About this plate

The PNU, three letters, four digits, grey plate, black characters, a tarjeta naming the state and municipality, is the plate Brazil issued for a generation, and it is still lawfully on the road in quantity, no fleet share is claimed here because none was sourced. TWO PERIOD CAVEATS, both material. 969/2022 art. 57 lets these plates run "até o seu sucateamento", so a 2026 PNU sighting is entirely lawful; the end year is Res. 780/2019 art. 21's 31 January 2020 deadline, by which every DETRAN had to demand the Mercosul plate at first registration. What IS held verbatim is Res. 45/98 art. 1 (1998) and Res. 231/2007 art. 1 (2007), both prescribing exactly this grammar, plus Res. 45/98 art. 8 and Res. 99/99 art. 1, which ordered the national plate SUBSTITUTION completed by 31 December 1999, evidence that the rollout ran through the whole decade rather than landing in one year. 742/1989 (or of Res. 754/91) closes the single largest evidence gap in this jurisdiction.

## How numbers are issued

Sequential inside a three-letter block allocated to each state. Res.

## Separators

Res. 231/2007 art. 1 prescribes two GROUPS and no separator glyph; Res. 969/2022 art. 2 § 3, describing the same plate 15 years later, writes it "AAA-1111".

## Other standard plates here

- [Mercosur converted](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/brazil/mercosul-converted-2018) (2018 to today)
- [Mercosur standard](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/brazil/mercosul-standard-2018) (2018 to today)
- [Mercosur state arms](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/brazil/mercosul-uf-brasao-2018) (2018 to 2018)

## Use it

- Plate image (SVG): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/br/br-pnu-standard-1990.svg
- Make it with your own text: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plate-generator/brazil?series=br-pnu-standard-1990
- API: `GET https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/br` returns this series as the entry with `"id": "br-pnu-standard-1990"` (https://vehiclesdb.com/api)

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Open data, CC BY 4.0: reuse it with a visible credit to VehiclesDB and a link (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/attribution). Plate images show sample serials and are not open data (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/image-license). Dataset commit db0ec0a: https://github.com/vehiclesdb/vehiclesdb