Vehicle Registration Plates of Greece

Vehicle Registration Plates Of Greece

Greek vehicle registration plates are composed of three letters and four digits per plate (e.g. ΑΑΑ-1000). The letters represent the district (prefecture) that issues the plates while the numbers begin from 1000 to 9999. Similar plates with digits beginning from 1 to 999 are issued for motorcycles which exceed 50 cc.

With the exception of Athens and Thessaloniki, all districts are represented by the first 2 letters. The final letter in the sequence changes in Greek alphabetical order after 9,000 issued plates. For example, Patras plates are ΑΧΑ-1000, where ΑΧ represents the Achaia prefecture of which Patras is the capital. When ΑΧΑ-9999 is reached the plates turn to ΑΧΒ-1000 and this continues until ΑΧΧ is finished. Only the letters from the intersection between the Latin and Greek alphabets by glyph appearance are used, namely Α, Β, Ε, Ζ, Η, Ι, Κ, Μ, Ν, Ο, Ρ, Τ, Υ, Χ (in Greek alphabetical order). This is because Greece is a contracting party to the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, which in Annex 2 requires registration numbers to be displayed in capital Latin characters and Arabic numerals. The rule applies in a similar way in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria.

Combinations used for overseas residents are L-DDDD (where L = letter and D = digit) and are limited. Until 2003, taxis used L-DDDD; the plate was aligned with the prefecture and the letters were colored red.