Vehicle Registration Plates of Hungary - Plate Codes

Plate Codes

A short summary of some special plates, indicating the format as well:

• ABC-123: Normal series. ABCD-12 and ABCDE-1 are personalised plates (price about 340EUR and 1320EUR).

• EXX-123*,**: A taxi registration plate. Most common are EAA-001 to EDZ-999.

• FXX-123*,**: A vehicle which is not registered as "automobile", but as a "truck".

• MTV-123: Hungarian Television plate.

• XXX-123: A trailer plate, formerly this would have been an 'F' plate. 'X' plates are white.

• UXX-123: Motorcycle plate. Recent issues are beyond UXA-123, so a new system may follow shortly.

• YXX-123: A "slow vehicle" plate. This plate is red on white, and special regulations apply.

• CK 12–34: Consular plate. Used by consular, but not diplomatic bodies.

• DT 12–34: Diplomatic plate. Used by diplomatic, but not consular bodies. Plate is white on EU-blue (pre-EU version was lighter blue).

• HA 12–34: Hungarian Army plate. (Order 35/2000 states that Army plates begin with 'H')

• MA 12–34: National Ambulance Service plate.

• OT 12–34: Old-timer registration plate. For antique cars (older than 30 yrs). (Non-EU plate version only)

• RB 12–34: Hungarian Police plate. (Order 35/2000: Police and Border Patrol plates begin with 'R'. RA, RF, RK also in use.)

• RR 12–34: Hungarian Customs and Excise plates, but also prisoner transports use this.

• M12 3456: Agricultural vehicles usable in transport.

• C-X 1234: A vehicle owned by a non-Hungarian national, natural or legal person.

• X-A 1234, X-B 1234 and X-C 1234: Rent-a-car plates, no longer used since May 1, 2004.

*EXX and FXX plates are "commercial plates", thus they are yellow.

**Series EEA to EZZ and FAA to FHZ are given out as normal.

Temporary plates (no EU plate version):

• E-12345: Temporary plate.

• P-12345: An experimental or trial vehicle ("Próba"). May only carry one person at a time.

• V-12345: A car which must undergo a customs process.

• Z-12345: A car which is to be exported from Hungary.

Note: in Hungary, an "automobile", or a "person-carrier" is defined in the Highway Code as a "vehicle licenced to carry no more than 9 persons, including the driver, provided that the car is not restricted to carrying fewer persons." Usually it is restricted to 5 persons. The issue of Vehicle Registration Plates is regulated by the "Order No. 35 of 2000 of the Minister of Interior Affairs".

There is no system in use giving the exact date and place of the issue of the plate. Naturally, it is included in the car registration documents, but there is no simple way, like in the UK, to tell the age of the car, or a simple way, like in Germany (as well as in most countries in C/E Europe), to tell where the car is from. However, as plates are issued by the Documents Office of each municipality with issuing rights, and as they get plates in boxes of 50 pairs, there are some ways to tell where the plate is from. Also, one is able to tell approximately when a plate was issued, by looking at the sequence of letters. However, as plates come in boxes of 50, it isn't incommon, that a plate beginning with 'KD' is issued before a 'KC' plate, and so forth. This means that you could be between three to six months off when guessing the age of a plate.

The old-style (non-EU) licence plates are based on the Hungarian Standard "MSZ 140/1990".