Vehicle Registration Plates of Croatia - Overview

Overview

There is also a possibility of having a customized plate for a fee. One type of customized plate looks exactly like the standard ones, with the exception that the combination of numbers and letters is personally chosen by the vehicle's owner. The other kind of customized plates can consist of a word with from four to seven letters or a combination of the word with four or five letters and one or two numbers. However, these plates are still quite rare in Croatia, mostly because they can only be used for five years after the first registration and they also require a fee of 8,000 kuna (over 1000 euros).

There are also some special plates. While the numbers and letters on standard license plates are colored black, plates for foreign citizens permanently living in Croatia, international organizations and temporary registered vehicles have green numbers and letters. On the plates used on bigger trucks and other vehicles that can be oversized for some of the smaller roads, the numbers and letters are red.

The police vehicles are equipped with the plates consisting of six numbers divided in two groups and separated by the Coat of Arms of Croatia, the color of numbers being blue. First group of numbers denote police department to which the vehicle belongs. While the background on all of these plates is colored white, on those used on military vehicles it is yellow. However, the system of dividing numbers and letters is the same as on the standard plates, but instead of a city code there are letters HV for Hrvatska vojska (Croatian military). At the same time, specialized military vehicles have the letters VP for vojna policija or MP for military police (military police) as the final two letters. Plates for diplomatic representatives (embassies, consulates) are blue with yellow numbers and letters. First three number denote country, followed by letter A, C, or M, then serial number of vehicle.

As opposed to all above mentioned plates that are made of metal, the dealer's test plates are stickers that are attached to the plate holder. These plates consist of a city code separated by the coat of arms from five numbers divided in two groups and they can be used for a limited number of days.

Starting from 2008 onwards, special plates with additional two letters (PP or PV) are introduced, which PP stands for prijenosne pločice (Transferrable plates) and PV stands for povijesno vozilo (Historical vehicle) in a form CC-PV-NNN(N).

Also from 2008 onwards, export plates are introduced, which RH stands for Republika Hrvatska, has green background and yellow numbers and letters.