Why foreign plates require extra care
The Austria digital vignette is bound to the plate. Character sequence, registration country and format must match the physical plate exactly — a near-correct plate fails the ASFINAG automated check and triggers the replacement toll (€ 120 cars / € 65 motorcycles).
Maximum characters per country
Guide for the main plate field only (the EU/national strip on the left is not counted here). Valid plates may use fewer characters.
| Country | Max. | Typical format | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 8 | M-AB 1234 | Hyphen after city code is mandatory. May include E or H suffix. |
| 🇦🇹 Austria | 7 | W-12345A | District code + hyphen + letters/digits. |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 7 | AB 123 CD | Blue strip on the right shows the province. No hyphen. |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 8 | ZH 123 456 | Canton code (2 letters) + up to 6 digits. |
| 🇸🇮 Slovenia | 7 | LJ A1-234 | City code + letter + hyphen + digits. |
| 🇭🇺 Hungary | 7 | ABC-123 | Three letters + hyphen + three digits (old format). |
| 🇨🇿 Czechia | 8 | 1AB 2345 | One digit region + letters + digits. |
| 🇵🇱 Poland | 8 | KOS 12345 | 2–3 district letters + 4–5 character number. |
| 🇫🇷 France | 7 | AB-123-CD | Fixed SIV layout since 2009. |
| 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 6 | AB-123-C | Sidecode layouts vary. |
German plates (DE) — city hyphen is mandatory!
German plates require the hyphen between city code and the rest. Correct: M-AB 1234 — wrong: MAB1234 without hyphen.
Italian plates (IT)
Italian plates follow AB 123 CD (two letters + three digits + two letters, no hyphen). The blue strip on the right (province code, e.g. MI) is not part of the plate.
Common mistakes
- Confusing 0 and O or I and 1
- Forgotten German city hyphen
- Wrong country for rental cars
- Including Italian province code
- Plate change after purchase without new vignette
Official ASFINAG purchase
For direct official purchase use: shop.asfinag.at.