VehiclesDB

New Zealand number plate: Diplomatic DC

Issued today Documented since 1995. Diplomatic plates for car, van, truck, and bus, issued by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (the Registrar of Motor Vehicles under Part 17 of the Land Transport Act 1998). One of 18 New Zealand number plates.

New Zealand license plate, Diplomatic DC (documented since 1995), sample DC643
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Format, years and the law

Format
DC999, for example DC643 (9 any digit)
  • the letters DC
  • a series of numbers from 1 onwards, of unstated length

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

Years issued
Documented since 1995; the format is likely older than the first year documented. Still issued.
Vehicle class
Diplomatic: diplomatic corps (embassy) issuance, usually its own decode. Issued for car, van, truck, and bus.
Colours
Characters #000000 Background #FFFFFF
About this plate
The scope is wider than "embassies": Schedule 4 row 3 reaches four distinct groups, including international organisations granted immunities under s 9(2)(a) of the Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities Act 1968, so a DC plate is not proof of an embassy.

Legal basis and sources

  1. reg 37(1)-(2) and Schedule 4 row 3, covering diplomatic missions, persons with full diplomatic immunities under the Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities Act 1968, and organisations and persons under s 9(2)(a)-(b) of... https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2011/0079/latest/whole.html
  2. cl 5 and its table row 2, the same mark in the same words, in force 1 July 1995 https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/1995/0136/latest/whole.html
  3. 'Official motor vehicles are embassy, consulate and high commission vehicles, and New Zealand Government crown vehicles. They have plates with a symbol of a crown or special characters, for example, CR (crown).' https://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/licensing-rego/number-plates

This plate in your app

The series id is nz-diplomatic-dc. The API returns its format, validation, colours and designs with the rest of New Zealand's series:

curl -s https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/nz \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VEHICLESDB_API_KEY" \
  | jq '.series[] | select(.id == "nz-diplomatic-dc")'
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