A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
The most common format for vehicle registration plates in Romania consists of black letters on white background in the format CC 12 ABC, where CC is a two letter county code, 12 is a two digit group, and ABC is a three letter group. For Bucharest, the format is B 12 ABC or B 123 ABC, where B is code for Bucharest city, 12 and 123 is a two or three digit group, and ABC is a three letter group.
The left side of the plate bears a blue vertical strip (the "Euroband") displaying the 12 stars of the European Union and the country code of Romania (RO). Between 1992-2007 the band featured the Romanian flag instead of the 12 stars. All lettering comes from the Latin alphabet.
The front plate usually carries a round label displaying the month and year when the technical inspection of the vehicle is due. These labels have different background colors depending on the year displayed. The label does not have a specific slot and can be placed anywhere, but the right side is preferred and plates usually come with a slot for them.
Regulations
License plates are mandatory on both the front and rear of vehicles (only on the rear for motorcycles).
It is mandatory for the paint on all plates to be reflective, and they must be kept clean and fully visible at all times.
Assignment rules
The plates are issued for each car and for each owner, and they must be returned when the car is either sold or scrapped, although the new buyer is entitled to request continued use of the old license plate.
The digits and letters for the standard license plates are usually assigned at random, unless a customization fee is paid. Customizing is limited to picking the digits and the 3 capital letters at the end, provided the chosen combination is not already assigned.
The letter Q is not used as it may be confused with the letter O. The three-letter code may not start with I or O, as they can be mistaken for 1 or 0. (Until 1999, I and O were not used at all). Also, combinations like III or OOO are not allowed.[1]
Several letter groups have been reserved for special use and may not be assigned to regular cars. These include POL (Romanian Police), DEP (Chamber of Deputies), SNT (Romanian Senate), SRI (Romanian Intelligence Service), GUV (Romanian Government).[1]
It is common for companies or organizations with large car fleets to use the same letter combination on all their cars. Such combinations are done only as a convenience; they are not reserved, are assigned only while numbers last, and can additionally be explicitly requested by anybody, regardless of affiliation to that company or organization.
Letter combinations that may form obscene words in the Romanian language are denied licensing, but may still be in use if they were issued before the combination was blocked.[1]
Combinations which the public has consistently refused to use, such as JEG (clunker, wreck of a car) or BOU (insult with the meaning of "dumb") are not included in the random assignment pool, but may still be explicitly requested.[1]
Size and font
There are three standard sizes for license plates:
- A (520 x 110 mm) is the most widely used type and is mandatory for the front on any type of car.
- B (340 x 200 mm) is a narrow type used on the back of certain types of cars, such as SUVs.
- C (240 x 130 mm) is used exclusively by motorcycles.
The font used for the main part of the plate is DIN 1451 Mittelschrift, while the RO country code on the Euroband uses DIN 1451 Engschrift.[2][3]
Legislation
In Romania, vehicle license plates are issued based on:
- Article 19 from O.U.G. 195 from 12 December 2002 regarding traffic on public roads[4][5]
- Order of Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration nr. 1501 from 13 November 2006, regarding the procedure of vehicle licensing, registering, striking out and issuing of provisional or running licenses.[6][7]
- Romanian Standard SR 13078:1996 "Road vehicles. Retro-reflective registration plates for motor vehicles and trailers" with five updates.[8]
- Romanian Standard SR 13140:1996 "Road vehicles. Content and structure of registration provisional and running test numbers to be relief embossed on retro-reflective registration plates" with three updates.[9]
Possible combinations
Given that Q cannot be used at all, and that all letter combinations starting with O or I are forbidden in order to avoid confusion, there are roughly 23 x 25 x 25 = 14,375 letter combinations (but keep in mind that a couple of dozen specific combinations have been eliminated from the public pool for various reasons). Multiplying with the 99 numbers in the original scheme (00 is not a valid number) gives 1,423,125 possible combination for each of the 42 counties.
While the total 59,771,250 number of combinations is far in excess (about an order of magnitude greater) than the actual number of vehicles registered in the entirety of Romania, this does not take into account the particularities of specific counties.
Indeed, during 2010 it was estimated that the pool of combinations for Bucharest would run out during the year, a situation created by the city's unusually large vehicle pool when compared to other cities and even entire counties.
This has led to expanding the number code for Bucharest to 3 digits,[10][11] raising the city's pool to 2,860,625 and the total number of combinations overall to 61,208,750.
Other license plate formats
There are several other types of license plates currently in use in Romania in addition to the standard format.
Short-term temporary plates
Colloquially referred to as red numbers, the short-term temporary plates consist of the European strip, followed by the county code and three to six digits, of which the first is always zero and the second is always non-zero. All the writing outside of the European-strip on this plate is in red font.
These plates are valid for a maximum of 30 days and they can be re-issued for a cumulative continuous period of no more than 90 days.[12]
These plates can be used for any vehicle regardless of its technical road-worthy state and have been specially designed as a fallback for any case where it would be impractical or impossible for a vehicle to be issued regular plates.
They tend to be most often used by car leasing and rental companies for their new cars, or cars used as temporary replacement while the owner's car is being repaired.
There is a variation of this format used for test vehicles, having 3 digits following the county code, and the inscription "PROBE" (trials) after the digits. The smallest number used in this case is 101.
Long-term temporary plates
The long-term temporary plates are similar to the short-term plates but use a black inscription instead of red and the number never starts with zero. Additionally, on the right side there is a red strip containing the end date of the plate's validity in YY/MM format.
This kind of plate is used most often for foreign nationals who take temporary residence in Romania, and for cars that fall under a leasing agreement.
Plates for electric vehicles
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Most commonly known as "green plates", they are similar to the standard format, but use a green inscription instead of black. This kind of plate is meant solely for electric vehicles (EVs), distinguishing them from those vehicles relying on gasoline or diesel.[13]
Diplomatic plates
The diplomatic plate contains the European strip followed by blue text. The text consists of a code which can be CD (Diplomatic Corps), TC (Consular Transport), or CO (Consulate), followed by 6 digits.
The first three digits stand for the country or international organization, the last three usually for the rank of the owner. The lowest number for both sets of 3 is 101. Thus, a car with license plate number 123 101 would refer to Switzerland's (123) ambassador (ambassadors and heads of mission are usually assigned code 101).
CD license plates are issued exclusively to diplomats, and cars having such plates benefit from diplomatic immunity. However TC licence plates are issued to foreign NATO officers based in Romania and other organisations in addition to Consulates. Initially, the countries or organizations received codes in their alphabetical order, but some countries, such as United States or Russia, have received more than one code because they have surpassed 899 registered cars.
Table of codes (incomplete):
Code Country 101 
Afghanistan
102 
Albania
103 
Algeria
104 
Argentina
105 
Austria
106 
Belgium
107 
Brazil
108 
Bulgaria
109 
Cambodia
110 
Canada
111 
Czech Republic
112 
Chile
113 
China
114 
Cyprus
115 
Democratic Republic of the Congo
116 
South Korea
122 
Egypt
123 
Switzerland
124 
Ethiopia
125 
Finland
126 
France
127 
Germany
128 
Greece
130 
India
131 
Indonesia
132 
Jordan
134 
Iran
136 
Italy
138 
Japan
141 
Libya
142 
Malaysia
146 
Moldova
150 
Netherlands
152 
Pakistan
154 
Poland
155 
Portugal
156 
Russia
157 
United States
159 
Syria
165 
Tunisia
166 
Turkey
167 
Ukraine
168 
Hungary
170 
Venezuela
183 
United Nations
188 
Armenia
189 
Belarus
191 
Peru
193 
Qatar
205 
Croatia
206 
Azerbaijan
207 
United Kingdom
210 
Saudi Arabia
211 United States
216 
Georgia
217 
United Arab Emirates
220 
Kuwait
222 Armenia
223 
Slovenia
226 
Turkmenistan
231 
Burundi
234 
Estonia
Plates for special organizations
The Romanian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are allowed to issue plates in a special format which does not fall under normal regulations.
The format, size and style is decided by each such organization via internal regulations and may not resemble other types of plates.
The Armed Forces use plates without the European strip (as their regulations predate the 1992 regulation imposing it), with the letter "A" (Armată, military) followed by 3 to 7 digits. Military plates issued more recently (from 2002 onwards) may include the European strip.
Ministry of Interior plates start with "MAI" and are typically seen on cars belonging to the Gendarmerie, Romanian Police, emergency response units, and some SMURD ambulances.
MAI plates are not issued to cars used by local police employed by town hall, which use regular plates instead.
Local administration plates
Yellow background plates are issued by the local authorities such as town hall, municipalities, village or commune mayoralties for the registration of certain light vehicles, or other types of vehicles that do not need country-wide authorization, such as public utility vehicles, some light garbage trucks, lawn mowers, small sanitation vehicles, mass-transit vehicles tethered to local infrastructure, quad bikes, scooters, golf carts and non-road going agricultural vehicles, such as combine harvesters, non-road-going tractors, or horse-drawn carts.
The format of the plate is not standardized across all administrations. Most local authorities used a yellow plate, but there are exceptions like Cluj-Napoca, which used white plate similar to old German plates, but always bearing the letters CJ-N (from the city name's abbreviation), followed by 3 digits.
The coat of arms or initials of the city or village is often used on the left, followed by a number of fixed-length number (4 to 6 digits, always the same size within the same issuing authority). The first number to be issued is usually 1, zero-padded to the left.
Vehicles bearing yellow plates may not leave the jurisdiction of the authority that issued the plate, but some of them can cross county borders on occasion, for example rental scooters, vehicles being towed, or trolleybuses on their way from the factory to the depot. In the case of rental vehicles such as scooters or quad bikes, they tend to retain the registration plates issued by the authority of the region where the owner resides even when they are used in another jurisdiction.
Dual-powered buses are registered with standard number plates.
Trams may not bear the plate itself, but are required to somehow bear the registration number, either painted or printed on a sticker, usually next to their fleet number.
County codes
This is the table of counties, their county code and their county capital cities.
| Code | County | Capital |
|---|---|---|
| B | - | BUCUREŞTI |
| AB | Alba | Alba Iulia |
| AG | Argeş | Pitești |
| AR | Arad | Arad |
| BC | Bacău | Bacău |
| BH | Bihor | Oradea |
| BN | Bistrița-Năsăud | Bistrița |
| BR | Brăila | Brăila |
| BT | Botoșani | Botoșani |
| BV | Brașov | Brașov |
| BZ | Buzău | Buzău |
| CJ | Cluj | Cluj-Napoca |
| CL | Călărași | Călărași |
| CS | Caraș-Severin | Reșița |
| CT | Constanța | Constanța |
| CV | Covasna | Sfântu Gheorghe |
| DB | Dâmbovița | Târgoviște |
| DJ | Dolj | Craiova |
| GJ | Gorj | Târgu Jiu |
| GL | Galați | Galați |
| GR | Giurgiu | Giurgiu |
| HD | Hunedoara | Deva |
| HR | Harghita | Miercurea Ciuc |
| IF | Ilfov | Bucharest |
| IL | Ialomița | Slobozia |
| IS | Iași | Iași |
| MH | Mehedinți | Drobeta-Turnu Severin |
| MM | Maramureș | Baia Mare |
| MS | Mureș | Târgu Mureș |
| NT | Neamț | Piatra Neamț |
| OT | Olt | Slatina |
| PH | Prahova | Ploiești |
| SB | Sibiu | Sibiu |
| SJ | Sălaj | Zalău |
| SM | Satu Mare | Satu Mare |
| SV | Suceava | Suceava |
| TL | Tulcea | Tulcea |
| TM | Timiș | Timișoara |
| TR | Teleorman | Alexandria |
| VL | Vâlcea | Râmnicu Vâlcea |
| VN | Vrancea | Focșani |
| VS | Vaslui | Vaslui |
History
1900 – 1908
| External image | |
|---|---|
 Prince Bibescu's car bearing the "0" license plate Scan of a car race announcement from the February 1908 issue of "Revista Automobilă"[14] |
The first plate was issued in 1900 to Bazil Assan, bearing the number 1. This created a problem with Prince Bibescu, who wanted to have the first license plate, so he was issued plate number 0 (zero). Bibescu's car can be seen today at the National Museum of Romanian History.[15]
The plates took the simple form of white numbers on a black background, and were home made. The numbers belonged to the owner and not the car, and the list of owners and their numbers was published monthly in the "Revista Automobilă" magazine, edited by the Romanian Royal Automobile club. As there were so few cars (139 in 1908), it was not necessary to note the region on the number plate. Registration was done by the Mayor of Bucharest.[15]
The published lists show that the numbers were assigned in the order they were requested, without differentiating between physical persons and organizations.[14]
1908 – 1966
| External images | |
|---|---|
| Bucharest license plate (1908)[16] | |
| Sighişoara license plate (1908)[17] |
On August 15, 1908, a letter sent by the Romanian Automobile Club to the Chief Commissioner of Police mentions the need for a new system of license plates, which would see that all plates use the same size and font and include the name of the city where the vehicle was registered. The new system was approved by the police very soon after and a car participating to a race on October 26, 1908 can already be seen bearing the number "9-Bc" (Bucharest).[14]
As the new system became more and more common-place, the county was usually indicated by adding a hyphen and the regional abbreviation, which was derived from the main letters of the county capital. Ilfov County, for example, was represented by B for Bucharest (Bc before 1914), while Craiova, Cv, represented Dolj.
Some period photos of, for example, Lugoj show the abbreviation Lgs appearing both before and after the number, although by the 1930s the number invariably came first.
Plates tended to be white on a black background until the late 1920s, when the system gradually moved to black on a white background.
This system was in place until 1966. The frequent territorial and administrative changes of the period meant that the codes changed often, and after December 1960 they started being based on the region's name rather than the name of the main regional city. So, after 1960 a car registered in Craiova as 150-Cv would have changed its license plate to 150-OL, corresponding to the new administrative region Oltenia. Similarly, when Brașov changed its name to "Orașul Stalin" in 1952, the regional code was also changed to O.S., before reverting to Br briefly and then BV after the changes of December 1960.[15]
Special numbers were used occasionally to denote the type of vehicles they were on. For a while in the 1930s, in Bucharest, numbers between 10,000-B and 12,999-B (the comma was used as thousands separator) were taxis; they carried Tx as an additional tag, as did buses, which started with 15,000-B. Around 1952, commercial vehicles began to be given numbers over 25,101, specialised commercial vehicles and buses numbers over 50,101, tractors over 65,101 and motorcycles over 75,101. Around 1959, to create a distinction between state-owned and privately owned cars, the latter were given numbers beginning with 5,001 in the provinces and 15,001 in Bucharest. By 1966, when the system was changed, the numbers for cars allocated to Bucharest were all taken and a new system was needed.
In the pre-war period 0 was the smallest number possible (although in practice most counties started counting at 1). After 1952 numbers started with 101, possibly influenced by the Soviet system, where they started with 01-01.[15]
Pre-war county codes (1913)