Vehicle Identifiers

Vehicle Identifiers#

Reference of identifier schemes for road vehicles, rail, and heavy machinery, VIN structure, license-plate conventions, rail UIC codes, and common chassis-number formats.

For aircraft / ship identifiers, see Aviation & Maritime.

VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)#

ISO 3779 standard; 17 characters since 1981; uses A-Z + 0-9 excluding I, O, Q (visually ambiguous).

Position

Field

1

WMI: country / region (1-5 = North America, J = Japan,

K

= Korea, S = UK, V = France, W = Germany, Z = Italy).

2

WMI: manufacturer (G = General Motors, F = Ford, T = Toyota,

H

= Honda, etc.).

3

WMI: vehicle type / division.

4-8

VDS (Vehicle Descriptor Section): make, model, body, engine.

9

Check digit (modulo-11 of weighted positions).

10

Model year (A=1980, B=1981, …, Y=2000, 1=2001 … 9=2009,

A

=2010, B=2011, …, Y=2030; cycles every 30 years).

11

Plant code.

12-17

Sequential serial number.

Common WMI prefixes#

Region / country

First char

North America

1, 4, 5 = US; 2 = Canada; 3 = Mexico.

South America

8 = Argentina, Chile, Venezuela; 9 = Brazil.

Europe

S = UK; V = France; W = Germany; X-Z = various.

Africa

A-H.

Asia

J = Japan; K = Korea; L = China; M = India; N = Iran/Tk; P = Indonesia/Singapore; R = Taiwan/Vietnam.

Oceania

6 = Australia; 7 = New Zealand.

The full WMI table is published by SAE International.

Engine / chassis numbers#

Concept

Notes

Engine number

per-OEM scheme; not standardized; often etched on block.

Chassis number

historical; in modern era ≈ VIN; some markets still stamp separately.

Trailer VIN

same 17-digit standard.

Motorcycle VIN

17-digit since 1981; smaller font + scattered location.

License plates: format families#

Country / region

Format

US

varies per state; typically 6-7 chars; vanity / specialty common.

Canada

varies per province.

EU (post-1998)

blue stripe with EU flag + country code; format per country (DE: AB-CD 1234; FR: AB-123-CD; ES: 0000 BBB).

UK

AB12 CDE (current 2001+ format).

Japan

地名 + 3-digit category + hiragana + 4-digit serial.

China

省 + 1-letter city + 5-character serial; new green plates for NEVs.

India

STATE-DISTRICT-SERIES-NUMBER (e.g. KA-01-AB-1234); green plates for EVs.

Russia

region code at right; Cyrillic letters only from {ABEKMHOPCTYX} (Latin-lookalike subset).

International identification (oval country sticker; ISO 3166 alpha-2 / 3 / older 1-3 char like D for Germany, GB for UK, F for France).

ANPR / LPR#

Automatic number-plate recognition / license-plate recognition is the OCR + DB lookup pipeline; typical precision is high on straight-on, properly-illuminated plates and degrades on:

  • Angled / curved / overlapping vehicles.

  • Reflective / dirty / damaged plates.

  • Non-Latin scripts without local model.

  • Specialty / vanity plates.

Open ANPR engines: OpenALPR, EasyOCR + custom model. Commercial: Vigilant Solutions, MorphoTrak, NEC.

Rail#

System

Notes

UIC numbers (12-d)

European rail-vehicle ID; check digit; encodes type, country, owner, serial.

EVN

European Vehicle Number; UIC-aligned.

Reporting marks

North America (4-letter SCAC for owners, e.g. UP = Union Pacific, CSXT = CSX, BNSF = BNSF, CN = Canadian National).

SCAC

Standard Carrier Alpha Code; owned by NMFTA.

SeM (CIS)

similar 8-digit numbering (Russia, CIS).

Locomotive class

AAR / UIC-specific.

ETCS / PTC

European / US train-control systems.

Heavy machinery / equipment#

Maker

Notes

Caterpillar

8-digit serial + product family; PIN since ~2000 is 17-char.

Komatsu

4-letter prefix + serial.

Volvo CE

17-char PIN; aligned with VIN structure.

John Deere

17-char PIN + 13-char serial.

Case / CNH

varies.

JCB

17-char PIN.

HIN (Hull Identification Number) for boats#

12-character (US since 1972; 14 since 1984):

Position

Field

1-3

manufacturer ID code (MIC).

4-8

hull serial number.

9-10

month + year of certification (e.g. A1 = Jan 2001; letter cycles).

11-12

model year.

Driver’s license / national ID interactions#

License-plate searches typically don’t reach the registered keeper without LE / regulator authority. Cross-walk through:

  • DMV / DVLA / national vehicle-registration authority.

  • Insurance databases (e.g. UK MID, US LexisNexis Insurance).

  • OFAC sanctions matches on vessel / plate.

  • Wayback / cached driver-records in some jurisdictions.

  • Cellebrite Pathfinder + similar for impounded device cross- reference.

Operator notes#

  • VIN check digit, position 9; computed via weighted-sum modulo 11. Easy to spot a falsified VIN.

  • Cloning, copying a legit plate / VIN onto a stolen vehicle is the dominant car-theft tradecraft worldwide.

  • NMVTIS / Carfax, US lifecycle vehicle data.

  • Stolen-vehicle databases, INTERPOL SMV (Stolen Motor Vehicles), Europol national-feed crosswalk, NMVTIS.

  • EV plates, many jurisdictions distinguish (green China, green India, blue/white EU, ZEV variants in US).

  • License-plate readers, privacy-regulated in many places; retention limits + warrant requirements vary widely.

References#

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