You can now see a new license plate combination on the road (but not for passenger cars)

For those who expect a new car halfway through this year, it will be exciting to see whether there is a license plate from the new series on the nose. But while passenger cars have yet to start the series called 'sidecode 11', this combination is already old news for commercial vehicles. Vans and pick-ups (and everything with a gray license plate) switched yesterday to a new license plate series called 'sidecode 12'.

In the Netherlands, commercial vehicles have a different license plate. Entrepreneurs who buy a car with this so-called 'grey license plate' enjoy certain tax benefits. Not all cars qualify for a gray license plate, the government sets certain requirements for, for example, the loading space or the loading platform. Private individuals do not receive tax benefits if they buy a car with a gray license plate.

What will the gray license plate look like in 2024?

The new license plate combination for commercial vehicles is now 'X-01-XXX', where the first letter is always a V. The first commercial vehicle with the new license plate is a Ford Transit Connect with license plate V-01-BBB. This is what license plate guru reports Jasper Verweij on his LinkedIn. The last car with a license plate from the previous series was also a Transit Connect and that was VZZ-99-Z.

Funny enough, BBB is not on the list of prohibited license plates in the Netherlands. Other political parties such as the PVV and VVD are banned. Other prohibited combinations are: GVD, KKK, KVT, LPF, NSB, PKK, PSV, SGP, and TBS. We have seen the license plate GHB on the road, so not all naughty words have been filtered by the RDW.

Why a new gray license plate now?

Somewhere around the summer, passenger cars will only start using side code 11. Why will the gray license plate then be replaced by side code 12 in 2024? It is not as if many more vans are sold in the Netherlands than passenger cars. But if a license plate may only start with a 'V', then the combinations are a lot more limited.

By the way, there is always a boss above boss, because license plates have already been issued with the side code 12 combination. Agricultural vehicles whose license plates start with the 'T' have been receiving license plates from this series since 2021. It will take a while for passenger cars, because we first have to start with the series with side code 11.