In an upcoming change, vehicles registered in Prague will soon sport license plates with an additional letter. This adjustment will involve replacing the number in the fourth position of the current license plate format with a letter. Production of the new plates has already commenced, with approximately 6,000 pairs already created. Motorists can expect to receive the new plates starting in the fall, with the first plate of the new series featuring the format 1AA A000. Ivan Novák from the Ministry of Transport unveiled the new plates during a presentation on Thursday.

The decision to introduce an extra letter on Prague license plates stemmed from the imminent exhaustion of combinations under the current format. The existing series will culminate with the plate 9AZ 9999. The Ministry of Transport deliberated over the new plate design for several months.

Novák, the director of the road vehicle operations department, explained, “We agreed that we didn’t want to change the size or format because we have a contract with the manufacturer that supplies us with registration plates. The easiest thing to do was to replace the number with a letter.”

The contract with SPM from Štětí, the plate manufacturer, is set to conclude in 2027. Altering the combination of letters and numbers would necessitate amending the agreement and producing a new form.

Currently, the change does not pose any significant problems, as the software only requires adjustment to use a letter instead of a number. However, if the position of the letter were to change, a new form would need to be created, according to Zdeněk Kůstka from SPM – Security Paper Mill.

The new numbering system will offer around five million combinations, providing ample availability for several years, according to Novák. The ministry is not currently considering future plate designs, as their focus lies on more critical plans such as digitization.

The current license plate design has remained unchanged since 2001. The first position is always occupied by a digit, followed by a letter indicating the region, and subsequent digits. Once all combinations are exhausted, a letter will replace the third position. The production cost for a plate amounts to 37 crowns.

The specific combination is stamped onto the provided aluminum profiles using a stamping machine. After covering the plate, it is packed in pairs into transport boxes and sent to the central warehouse in Pardubice. From there, the plates are distributed to individual municipal offices.

In addition to standard plates, various special plates are issued for export vehicles, test vehicles, veteran vehicles, and diplomatic vehicles. Each year, around 1.1 million plates are produced in Štětí, with a reserve prepared nine months in advance. It is important to note that once plates are issued, they are not returned to circulation.

Article by Prague Forum