Vehicle registration plates of Chile


Chile requires its residents to register their motor vehicles and display vehicle registration plates called "patentes". Formerly, it consisted of two letters followed by four numbers in the format AB*12•34, but combinations were exhausted in September 2007. The system adopted to replace the old one consists of four letters followed by two numbers in the format AB•CD*12. Vowels are not used in order to prevent profanity, and the letter Q is not used because of confusion with the number 0.
The same coding system is used in the Netherlands. In Chile the plate no longer provides information of where the vehicle was registered.