California license plate: Motorcycle
Issued today Documented since 2026. Motorcycle plates, issued by California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). One of 14 California license plates.
Format, years and the law
- Format
-
99L9999, for example85Q4819(L is any letter, 9 any digit)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
- Motorcycle: reduced-size series for motorcycles where format/design differs. Issued for motorcycle.
- Colours
-
Characters
#17195EBackground#FFFFFF - Size
- 7 × 4 in (178 × 102 mm) · every country's size
- About this plate
- MOTORCYCLE. Its own series because the format, the plate size and the one-plate rule all differ from the standard passenger series.
Legal basis and sources
- DMV: motorcycle plate 7x4 in, pre-1970 8x5 in https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-registration/license-plates-decals-and-placards/license-plates/
- VIRPM Appendix 1E .0115: the 1970-1980 motorcycle series 0A0000-9Z9999 and the 5x8 plate size https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/file/vr-manual-appendix-1e/
- § 4850(a): one plate for a motorcycle https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH§ionNum=4850
- en.wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_California
This plate in your app
The series id is us-ca-motorcycle. 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-motorcycle")'
- Plate image (SVG, sample serial): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-ca/us-ca-motorcycle.svg
- Blank template, filled on your side: https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-ca/us-ca-motorcycle/template.svg
