Germany license plate: Export

Format, years and the law

Format

LL-9999L, for example PW-9792R (L is any letter, 9 any digit)

The district code reads as usual; then comes Germany's only serial with digits before the letter. The red stripe at the right edge is a date, the day the registration, and the insurance behind it, expires at the border.

The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued.

Years issued

Documented since 2007; the format is likely older than the first year documented. Still issued.

Vehicle class

Export: plates for vehicles leaving the jurisdiction permanently. Issued for car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, and trailer.

Colours

Characters #000000 Background #FFFFFF

Size

520 × 110 mm · every country's size

About this plate

AUSFUHRKENNZEICHEN. PERIOD, honestly: 2007 is an UPPER BOUND for the series AS MODELED (digits-then-letter Erkennungsnummer): that rule's earliest secured statement is the FZV 2006 (verbatim, in force 1.3.2007). Neither the origin of the digits-then-letter serial nor the 1988(?) design change was primary-sourced; both are the recorded gaps here. Three things make it unique in Germany: the digits-then-letter Erkennungsnummer, the absence of the Euro-band, and a field the law requires NOT to be retroreflective. § 45 Abs. 1 also carries a nice period-logic constraint for a claims model: the plate may only be issued if the next roadworthiness inspection date falls AFTER the registration's expiry date, otherwise the inspection must be done first.

How long it is valid

max months: 12. note: § 45 Abs. 1 Nr. 2: the registration is limited to the duration of the proven third-party insurance, 'längstens auf ein Jahr'

Legal basis and sources

1. § 45: Fahrten zur dauerhaften Verbringung eines Fahrzeuges in das Ausland; Abs. 1 the insurance/HU conditions and the one-year cap; Abs. 2 'einer ein- bis vierstelligen Zahl und einem nachfolgenden Buchstaben' plus... https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/fzv_2023/__45.html
2. Anlage 4 Abschnitt 8: no Euro-Feld, the non-retroreflective red date field, the RAL 2002 seal https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/fzv_2023/anlage_4.html
3. FZV vom 25.4.2006, BGBl. I S. 988, the export Erkennungsnummer 'aus einer ein- bis vierstelligen Zahl und einem nachfol[genden Buchstaben]' verbatim, in force 1.3.2007. PERIOD UPPER BOUND for the format as modeled. https://media.offenegesetze.de/bgbl1/2006/bgbl1_2006_21.pdf
4. 27. ÄndVstVR vom 9.3.1998, BGBl. I S. 441, Art. 4, amends § 7 Abs. 2 Nr. 5 IntKfzV: the export plate's Dienstsiegel becomes 'mit einem Durchmesser von 35 mm' beside the pre-existing '(RAL 2002)', the RAL-2002 red seal... https://media.offenegesetze.de/bgbl1/1998/bgbl1_1998_14.pdf