California license plate: Exempt
Issued today Documented since 2026. Government plates for car, van, truck, and bus, issued by California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). One of 14 California license plates.
Format, years and the law
- Format
-
9999999, for example1234567(9 any digit)E is for exempt, government fleets that pay no registration fee. On the classic plates the shape around the E was the code: a diamond meant state-owned, an octagon county or city. Since the late 1990s the plate just spells out CA EXEMPT.
- E
- Exempt (fee-exempt government fleet; diamond = state, octagon = local)
The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued.
- Years issued
- Documented since 2026; the format is likely older than the first year documented. Still issued.
- Vehicle class
- Government: civil government fleets with distinct series. Issued for car, van, truck, and bus.
- Colours
-
Characters
#17195E - Size
- 12 × 6 in (305 × 152 mm) · every country's size
- About this plate
- CALIFORNIA EXEMPT, the government fleet series. Recorded because the seven-numeral shape is genuinely distinctive and because it is the one California series whose whole format is published in a single agency line.
Legal basis and sources
- VIRPM 21.180: '7 numbers' / 1234567 / CA Exempt https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbook/vehicle-industry-registration-procedures-manual-2/special-plates/personalized-...
This plate in your app
The series id is us-ca-exempt. The API returns its format, validation, colours and designs with the rest of California's series:
curl -s https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/us-ca \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $VEHICLESDB_API_KEY" \ | jq '.series[] | select(.id == "us-ca-exempt")'
- Plate image (SVG, sample serial): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-ca/us-ca-exempt.svg
- Blank template, filled on your side: https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-ca/us-ca-exempt/template.svg
