Introduced in 1998 with the aim of allowing the identification of imported used vehicles, the yellow area where the date of the vehicle's first registration is shown has the days numbered.
In addition to having an unprecedented configuration (with four letters separated by two numbers), the new enrollments they will no longer show the date of the vehicle's first registration in the yellow area on the right.
The decision was announced in a decree-law published in Diário da República and confirms a rumor that had emerged some time ago.
Current enrollment may also miss the date.
As stated in the decree-law, “the reference to the year and month of registration is unique in the European Union”, and only in Italy is it possible to indicate the year of registration.
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The decree-law also provides that vehicles with “old” registration numbers may also no longer bear the reference to the year and month of registration of the vehicle. However, this decision is up to the owners, and it is possible to circulate registrations that have this reference without having to replace them.
why this change
According to the decree-law, this change allows “the harmonization of the number plate model with that of the generality of the Member States of the European Union”.In addition to this standardization factor, there is another reason behind this decision: to facilitate the interpretation of Portuguese registration numbers by foreign authorities.
It seems that the mention of the date of first registration "generates incorrect interpretations by the transit inspection authorities of other Member States of the European Union" since "several countries use this solution not to indicate the date of first registration of the vehicle, but to register the expiry date of the registration”.
What else changes?
In addition to the new sequence of registrations and the disappearance of the indication of the date of the vehicle's first registration, the decree-law also points out the possibility of new registrations having three digits instead of just two.
Another novelty that the new registrations will bring is the fact that the dots that used to separate the sets of letters and numbers have disappeared, thus adopting a solution already used in most European countries.
Finally, the registrations of motorcycles and mopeds will also know about news. For the first time, these will feature the badge identifying the Member State, facilitating the international circulation of these vehicles (until now, whenever you travel abroad, you have to travel with the letter “P” placed on the rear of the motorcycle).
Article updated on January 14th at 18:06 with more information about new enrollments.