# India license plate: Vintage

> The India vintage license plate: format LL VA LL 9999, for example KA VA AB 1234, 2021 to today, car and motorcycle.

Page: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/india/vintage-2021 · 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 [India license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/india) (16 registration series).

![India license plate, Vintage (2021 to today)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/in/in-vintage-2021/india-license-plate-vintage.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `LL VA LL 9999` (L is any letter, 9 any digit) |
| Years | 2021 → today |
| Class | historic |
| Issued for | car, motorcycle |
| Plate size | 340 × 200 mm |
| Other sizes | 200 × 100 mm: L1/L2 two-wheelers |
| Colours | background #FFFFFF; characters #000000 |
| 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 | `in-vintage-2021` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/india/vintage-2021) |

A pre-2021 vintage registration keeps its original plate for life if the owner never applies for the VA mark — its absence proves nothing about a car's age.

For once the rule is explicit: "VA stands for Vintage". State code, VA, a two-letter series, a number — and the mark is optional: an already-registered fifty-year-old car may keep its original number forever.

| Code | Stands for | English |
|---|---|---|
| `VA` | Vintage | vintage motor vehicle (50+ years) |

Sources:

- [egazette.gov.in](https://egazette.gov.in/WriteReadData/2021/228336.pdf)

## How the region is encoded

State code only, rule 81B has no district element, and the mark is allotted by the State Registering Authority rather than by a district office

## Who can have one

Rule 81A explanation: a vehicle of category L1/L2 (two-wheeler) or M1 (four-wheeler) "which is more than fifty years old from the date of first registration after first sale including any vehicle imported into India subject to the condition that such vehicle should be maintained in its original form and should not have undergone any substantial overhaul, which includes any modification in chassis or body shell or engine". Registration is valid ten years, renewable for five (rule 81C).

## Use it

- Plate image (SVG): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/in/in-vintage-2021.svg
- Make it with your own text: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plate-generator/india?series=in-vintage-2021
- API: `GET https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/in` returns this series as the entry with `"id": "in-vintage-2021"` (https://vehiclesdb.com/api)

---

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