Switzerland license plate: Motorcycle

Format, years and the law

Format

LL 999999, for example BE 879503 (L is any letter, 9 any digit)

Canton code and keeper number on the two-line plate, nothing in the string says motorcycle. Mind the category trap: a Kleinmotorrad rides the yellow plate, a Kleinmotorfahrzeug rides this white one, and the two names differ by half a word.

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

Years issued

Documented since 1977; the format is likely older than the first year documented. Still issued.

Vehicle class

Motorcycle: reduced-size series for motorcycles where format/design differs. Issued for motorcycle and quadricycle.

Colours

Characters #000000 Background #FFFFFF

Size

180 × 140 mm · every country's size

About this plate

MOTORCYCLE AND SMALL/THREE-WHEELER PLATES. Covers Motorräder, Kleinmotorfahrzeuge and dreirädrige Motorfahrzeuge (the last two being the Swiss quadricycle and trike categories), plus their trailers, all on the 180x140 mm two-line white plate. The Swiss category boundary is genuinely counter-intuitive: "Kleinmotorrad" (yellow) and "Klein- und dreirädriges Motorfahrzeug" (white) are different legal animals whose names differ by two words.

How numbers are issued

SEPARATE NUMBER SPACE, and this is the one Swiss fact that partially rescues plate-string disambiguation: Art. 84 Abs. 2 numbers "Motorräder, Klein- und dreirädrige Motorfahrzeuge" apart from the motorcar family, so the same canton runs two independent counters. A string alone still cannot say which counter it came from, only the plate's SIZE can.

Separators

on the two-line motorcycle plate the letters and the number are on different lines (Art. 85 Abs. 2), so there is no printed point at all

Legal basis and sources

1. VZV Art. 82 Abs. 1 lit. a (Motorräder, Klein- und dreirädrige Motorfahrzeuge on the white plate); Art. 83 Abs. 3 lit. c (18 cm x 14 cm, also for their trailers); Art. 84 Abs. 2 (separate number space); Art. 85 Abs. 2... https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/1976/2423_2423_2423/de
2. VTS Art. 136 Abs. 4 (rear plate only on Motorräder, Leicht-, Klein- und dreirädrige Motorfahrzeuge) https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/1995/4425_4425_4425/de