# Switzerland license plate: Motorcycle

> The Switzerland motorcycle license plate: format LL 999999, for example BE 879503, documented since 1977, motorcycle and quadricycle.

Page: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/switzerland/motorcycle · 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 [Switzerland license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/switzerland) (17 registration series).

![Switzerland license plate, Motorcycle (documented since 1977)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/ch/ch-motorcycle/switzerland-license-plate-motorcycle.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `LL 999999` (L is any letter, 9 any digit) |
| Years | ~1977 → today (documented from 1977; the format is likely older) |
| Class | motorcycle |
| Issued for | motorcycle, quadricycle |
| Plate size | 180 × 140 mm |
| 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 | `ch-motorcycle` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/switzerland/motorcycle) |

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.

Sources:

- [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 (two-line layout with both arms)](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/1976/2423_2423_2423/de)
- [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)

## 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

## Use it

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