When moving to Spain, our compatriots first of all think about the transportation of personal property, in particular a car. The process of registering a car in Spain is not very fast and the result is obtaining Spanish car plates. On September 18, 2000, a new vehicle registration plate system called “European” entered into force in Spain. According to the new system, the number plates in Spain do not contain any distinction between the regions of the country, as it was before, but only the letter E against the background of the EU flag.
Today, car numbers in Spain are a series of 4 numbers and 3 letters. Until 2000, Spanish car numbers began with a letter of the alphabet according to the province in which the car was registered (M for Madrid). The official reason for the adoption of the new vehicle registration plate system was the desire to actively involve citizens in the process of European integration. It was also connected with the desire to remove the first letter from the license plates and thereby simplify the procedure for buying and selling cars between different municipalities in Spain. The transition to this system of vehicle registration plates has made it easier for Spaniards to organize a trip in Europe by car, since most countries have the same system.
Today, the size of car plates in Spain is 52 x 11 cm, which is two centimeters longer than the previous model. The number presents a combination of 4 digits (from 0000 to 9999), all digits are used, forming 10,000 combinations. For numbers less than 1000, the digit 0 is added before the rest of the digits.
This is followed by a combination of three letters from “BBB” to “ZZZ”, excluding vowels (to prevent “offensive” combinations); the combination of LL and CH, as these combinations are incompatible with the design of number plates in Spain; Ñ and Q to avoid confusion with N and O and the number 0.
So the letters used in issuing license plates are B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y and Z in alphabetical order. This system allows you to create 80,000,000 car numbers, and thus it is possible to issue registration plates to vehicles for at least another 40 years, avoiding repetitions.
It is worth noting that in Spain it is not possible to purchase individual number plates, for example, numbers of the 6666 type. Only luck can help in obtaining such car numbers in Spain.