As of: March 6, 2024, 9:55 p.m
By: Julia Cuprakova
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License plates can reveal a lot about a car and its driver.
A hyphen on it often has a surprising meaning.
Anyone who drives a lot should always be up to date, because ignorance does not protect against punishment.
But staying up to date is not that easy.
Because there are always changes for drivers.
Be it the reversing camera requirement from July 2024 or new rules and bans in road traffic.
And not everything is always the same when it comes to license plates.
As
echo24.de
already reported, drivers are allowed to drive without a license plate in certain cases.
But some drivers also have combinations of characters whose meaning hardly anyone knows.
For example, what does a hyphen in a license plate mean?
Special license plates on cars indicate their affiliation with the authorities
License plates can say a lot about a car.
Something about affiliation with state institutions or the type of drive.
The Y stands for a vehicle from the Bundeswehr fleet and the E at the end of the license plate stands for an electric car.
So there are many different special features.
That's why drivers should always make sure their license plate is clean and clearly visible, otherwise they could face severe penalties.
But what does the license plate with the hyphen in the middle mean?
Hyphenated license plates identify diplomats and embassy staff
According to “Focus Online”, cars belonging to diplomats or embassy staff should have a license plate with a hyphen.
A diplomatic license plate always begins with a zero, followed by a hyphen and a number, as “Chip.de” also reports.
For other embassy staff who receive preferential treatment, the abbreviation of the issuing authority is at the beginning of the license plate, usually “B” for Berlin or “BN” for Bonn.
The first block of numbers after that indicates the country of origin.
The second block of numbers indicates the holder's rank.
The two number blocks are separated by a hyphen.
The following applies: the smaller the number at the end of the license plate, the higher the rank.
A special feature of diplomatic vehicles is diplomatic immunity.
Administrative offenses such as speeding committed with such a vehicle cannot therefore be prosecuted.
Prohibited license plates – these license plates are illegal
By the way, there are also license plates that are prohibited.
In particular, certain license plates are prohibited due to their symbolism or meaning.
For example, racist or discriminatory license plates are not accepted by the registration offices.
This includes clearly racist or xenophobic messages and their abbreviations:
Concentration camp, HJ, NS, SA, SS
The combinations: IZ-AN (backwards for NAZI) and HEI-L are also seen as critical
Combinations: JN, HH and AH with 18
Some combinations of digits or numbers are also prohibited: 14, 18, 28, 88, 188, 1888, 8888 and 8818