Documenting license plates used in Latvia, and their different variants. Latvian licenese plates are made of metal (except for temporary plates which are made of plastic, and electric scooter plates that are made of sticky paper), and use modified DIN1451 font, Austria to be exact.
Car license plates #
EU Size License Plates #
Standard, European size license plates. Used by cars with European size plate mounts. Often on USDM/JDM cars used in the front, but not in the back. Contain 2 letters, dash, and up to 4 numbers. Also used for vanity plates, which can fit up to 8 characters.
Normal
Vanity/Personalized
USDM/JDM Size License Plates #
Smaller, but fits same amount of characters as EU size plates. Used by USDM and JDM cars, as well as on official import cars, when there are no mounts for European size license plates (e.g. American Pickup Trucks, which are uncommon, and probably don’t justify developing body parts specifically for EU market). Same in size and format as larger motorcycle plates.
USDM/JDM Size License Plates (miniature, 4 character) #
Use case is the same as for bigger USDM/JDM plates, but because of the smaller size fits only 4 full size characters. Contain 2 letters and 2 numbers.
SUV Size License Plates #
Plates that have full size characters, but in 2 rows. Used primarily on SUVs.
Special series #
Cars in Latvia have 2 letters in their license plates, usually they don’t have any specific meaning, but there are some letter combinations that are reserved for special vehicles.
Electric Cars (EX) #
Since 2016, CSDD started separating electric cars from ICE powered ones, and assigned letters EX to them. Owners could get non-EX plates if they want (e.g. “moving” plate from previous car), but all electric cars registered after 2016 use blue characters. Electric cars registered before 2016 use same plates as other cars, but can get plates with blue letters.
Electric, normal
Electric, non-standard series
Historic Vehicles (VS) #
Historic vehicles use letters VS, these plates are issued to vehicles that are:
- properly maintained/restored
- have no modern modifications
- that are over 30 years old
- are not dailied.
These are valid for 5 years, after which have to be reassessed. Historic vehicles are exempt from taxes and possibly have other benefits (quotation needed).
Normal
USDM/JDM
Military Vehicles (LA) #
Military vehicles use series LA. Military plates are white on black, and do not have EU Strip or LV Strip.
TODO
Diplomatic Cars (CD) #
Diplomatic cars use letters CD. They use red background, and do not have EU Strip or LV Strip.
Normal
Electric (blue symbols)
Transit License plates (QA, QB) #
Transit license plates use letters QA and QB, and are issued to cars that temporarily have no full registration. These plates in addition to EU Strip have red strip on the opposite side or top right corner for full size USDM/JDM plates.
Transit, EU Size, QA series
Transit, USDM/JDM Size, QA series
Taxi (TX, TQ) #
Taxi license plates use letters TX, and later TQ, excluding electric cars. These license plates have yellow background and are issued to taxis.
Normal, TQ series
Electric, blue letters, EX series
Motorbike License Plates #
Mopeds #
Mopeds are motorbikes and small cars with 50cc engine and with power output up to 3kW, with speed limit of 45 km/h. These use the format of 1 Letter, followed by 2 numbers, and 1 letter, or 1 number and 2 letters.
Normal
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Electric
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Motorcycle, full size #
Full size motorcycle plates are identical in size and format to USDM/JDM car plates, but are restricted to Tx series (e.i. TA, TB, TC, etc.).
Normal, TO Series
Motorcycle, miniature #
These plates are a bit smaller then full size motorcycle plates, and have 2 letters and up to 3 numbers.
Miscellaneous License Plates #
License plates that don’t fit normal format of XX-YYYY or have weird use cases.
Trailer License Plates #
Trailers used to have a format of 1 letter, and up to 4 numbers, but later plates with 1 letter, up to 3 numbers and 1 letter were introduced (ambiguous to some moped plates).
EU Size, X YYYX format
SUV Size, X YYYY format
4 Wheel Moped License Plates #
Use the same format as mopeds, except first letter is separated by dash, and are the same size as standard European car plates.
Dealer License Plates #
These are issued to cars for which registration wasn’t finalized, essentially serving the same purpose as transit plates, but intended to be used within Latvia. These use red letters and a format of “B XXX-Y”.
Dealer, EU Size
Dealer, JDM/USDM Size
Tractor License Plates #
Tractor license plates start with letter T, and are plain black on white. They can be in either EU or USDM/JDM size, and have format “T XXXXYY” for EU Size plates, or “T YY XXXX” for USDM/JDM Size plates. These plates use a different font, that seems to be simpler to stamp.
Tractor, JDM/USDM size plate
Tractor, Temporary(?) plate
Since this plate does not begin with T, it is likely that this plate is either temporary, or perhaps used for non-tractor vehicles.
TODO
Electric Scooter License Stickers #
Electric scooters use vertical stickers with reflective material. They have 1 letter and 6 numbers.
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Pre-EU Plates #
These plates use the same formats and sizes as current plates, but have Latvian flag and letters “LV” instead of EU Strip. Were replaced by EU format plates after Latvia joined EU. These are still valid, but are not issued since 2004. They use series from AA to about Fx.
Cars (pre-EU) #
Normal EU size car plate
SUV size car plate
Small JDM/USDM car plate
Motorbikes (pre-EU) #
TODO
Trailers (pre-EU) #
Normal EU size trailer plate
Dead Plates #
For plates that existed at some point, but now impossible (or almost impossible) to find due to them being invalid, so they either have to be reconstructed, or taken from other sources.
Taxi (pre-EU) #
These plates use the same format as current taxi plates, but instead of EU strip have 3 squares (symbolizing taxi) with a letter “T” below it. May be valid, but are unlikely to be found considering taxi cars get replaced quite often.
Transit (pre-EU) #
These plates have only red strip on the left. Since are temporary, unlikely to be found, and be valid.
USSR Plates #
These plates use the same format as other USSR countries, but use region codes specific to Latvia. Not valid anymore, so can be found only in private collections.