Vehicle registration plates of Portugal

Local licence plates were issued from 1901 onwards by the districts civil governors offices and usually consisted of the full name or the abbreviation for the district followed by a serial number. (e.g. "LISBOA 123" or "L.^XA 123" for a vehicle registered in Lisbon).

A national car registration system was established in 1911. The country was divided into zones (North, Centre, South, and, from 1918, the Azores and Madeira), each having an identification number sequence for the licence plates, which was N–000, C–000, S–000, A–000 and M–000 respectively. Hire cars had a letter A added after the registration (e.g. S–4226–A) and provisionally registered vehicles had WW added (e.g. S–1703–WW). The plates had a black background with white letters and numbers.

By the mid-1930s so many vehicles had already been registered, especially in the South Zone (which included Lisbon), that the identification numbers have already reached five digits. As this represented a challenge for the identification of vehicles by the authorities, the system was changed. However, in the Azores and Madeira it persisted until 1962.

Type of licence plate issued between 1937 and 1992

On 1 January 1937, the second national car registration system came into force. This consisted of the sequence AA–10–00 to ZZ–99–99. The sequencing by zones was maintained, with the letters AA to LZ reserved for the South (Lisbon), MA to TZ for the North (Oporto) and UA to ZZ for the Center (Coimbra). The plates continued to have a black background with white letters and numbers.

Vehicles registered under the previous system had to change to the new one. In Lisbon, the vehicles of series S–000 and S–1000 changed to series AA–00–00, those of S–10000 to AB–00–00, those of S–20000 to AC–00–00 and those of S–30000 to AD–00–00. In Oporto, the changes were from N–000 and N–1000 to MM–00–00 and from N–10000 to MN–00–00. In Coimbra, all vehicles changed to the series UU–00–00. In doing so, re-registered vehicles kept the last four digits that they had had under the old system so that e.g. C–123 changed to UU–01–23, N–1234 to MM–12–34 and S–12345 to AB–23–45.

The letters MG, and later, ME and MX were reserved for the Army, AP for the Navy, AM for the Air Force and EP for government ministries. The letters CD, CC and FM were reserved for diplomatic vehicles (respectively for diplomatic, consular and non-diplomatic personnel), but with red characters on a white background. The letters TA, TB and TC, in red plates with white characters were reserved for temporary licences respectively in Lisbon, Oporto and Coimbra. National Republican Guard and the former Fiscal Guard had special sequences beginning respectively with the letters GNR and GF.

In the Azores and Madeira the new system was only adopted in 1962. The Azores were divided into three registration districts: Ponta Delgada, Angra do Heroísmo and Horta. The letters AN were reserved for Angra, AR and AS for Ponta Delgada and HO for Horta. For Madeira the groups MA and MD were reserved. The white letters on red TD, TG, TH and TF were for temporary licences respectively in Ponta Delgada, Angra, Horta and Madeira.

In the 1970s, new district registration offices were opened, and letters reserved for them: EM and EV for Évora, ZA and ZB for Braga, ZC and ZD for Vila Real, ZE and ZF for Aveiro, ZG and ZH for Guarda, ZI and ZL for Santarém, ZM and ZN for Setúbal and ZO and ZP for Faro. As Évora was considered a central office it also had a temporary licence code: TE. However, as the zonal registration system was abandoned relatively soon afterwards, most of these sequences were not used as zonal identifiers.

In the early 1980s the reservation of letter sequences by zone was discontinued, and vehicles were registered sequentially at a national level, so that letter combinations previously reserved for Oporto and Coimbra might be seen on vehicles registered in the Lisbon offices of the National Registration Office.

Sequences with the letters CU, FD and OO, were originally not used, the first two because they coincided with taboo slang words (CU – "arse", FD – Portuguese abbreviation for "fuck") and the last to avoid confusion with 00 (zero, zero). Later, however, The CU sequence was used in 1982 on Lisbon registered vehicles and OO in 1966, 1967, 1978, 1979 and 1982 on Oporto registered vehicles. [3]

In 1985, diplomatic plates adopted the format 000–CD000, 000–CC000 or 000–FM000, with the first three numbers a country identifier, and the last three sequential.

Type of licence plate issued between 1992 and 2005, before the introduction of the yellow ribbon in 1998.

Type of licence plate with yellow ribbon (for a June 2004 registered vehicle) issued between 1998 and 2020.

In March 1992, the AA–00–00 format came to an end and was succeeded by the genuinely national-level 00–00–AA sequence. The type of plate also changed to black characters on a reflective white background, with the blue ribbon, with the emblem of the European Communities (now Union) on the left-hand side and the letter P as a country identifier. Under this new sequence no combination of letters was reserved for specific entities or areas. However, in 1997 the combinations KA to KZ, the first letter of which sequence does not occur in the Portuguese alphabet and so had not previously been used, were given over to preregistered imported vehicles. The groups WA to WZ and YA to YZ were likewise reserved for this purpose, but the system was abandoned before these groups being used.

In 1998 a yellow ribbon with the date of the first registration of the vehicle was introduced, placed on the right-hand side of the plate. This was mandatory for all newly registered vehicles, whether new or second-hand imports. In 2005, the 00–00–AA sequence ended, and 00–AA–00 was introduced. The last of the old sequence was 99–ZZ–99 and ended in March 2020. A comprehensive list of the history of sequences from 1956 to mid-2015, in Portuguese, can be found here Archived 2016-06-23 at the Wayback Machine.

Type of licence plate issued from March 2020.

When it ran out, the 00-AA-00 sequency would be followed by the AA-00-AA sequency. This occurred in March 2020.

The change of sequency was however also accompanied by a decision to implement a change in the layout of the plates. The first change was the elimination of the right-hand side yellow ribbon with the date of the vehicle registration. This was justified by the issues Portuguese drivers had to face in some foreign countries, when local police authorities confounded the registration date of their vehicle's plates with a supposed circulation period limit date.

The second change was the elimination of the traditional dashes between the groups of letters and numbers. This was justified by the lack of space in the plates for all the characters if some combinations occur.

It is technically incorrect to say that licence plates are issued. The authorities issue a registration number, and it is then the owner's responsibility to have a standardized plate made up, either of plastic or metal, on production of the appropriate documentation. In the case of new car sales, this is done by the dealer.