Vehicle Number Plates Colours Decoded

Ever wonder what the different colors of the vehicle number plates mean? If you have noticed you will find number plates with white, yellow, blue or other color backgrounds. Every color has a meaning behind it and represents a purpose.

Let us start with the most important color number plate.

RED PLATE WITH GOLDEN EMBLEM

Probably one of the most important one. Cars that have a number plate with red color background and gold Indian emblem embedded to it, belong to the President of India and State Governors. These vehicles will not have an official vehicle license number, but just the Indian emblem.

RED COLOR NUMBER PLATE

These number plates are different and will cause no confusion with the “President’s” license plate. Red license plate with white letters is used for temporary registration. These are put as a temporary number plate at the time of purchase and must not be used for more than a month. In 2020, the Road Transport Ministry announced that driving with such number plates is illegal.

YELLOW COLOR NUMBER PLATE

Number plates with yellow background and black text are used for commercial vehicles such as trucks or taxis. For example the Ola or uber cabs. Even auto rickshaws have yellow number plates.

WHITE COLOR NUMBER PLATE

This number plate is for the common people, the general citizens of India. License plates with white color background and number written in black are used for cars that belong to the general public. It is important to note that such cars cannot be used for any commercial purposes.

BLACK COLOR NUMBER PLATE

These number plates are used for commercial vehicles as well, but are different from taxis like Ola and Uber. Black color license plate with yellow text on it, is used for the rental cars (self driving cars). These cars can be used for any purpose depending on the driver’s choice. A general driver’s license is enough for this; no need for commercial driving permits. For reference, Zoom cars, My Choize rental cars, all these have black number plates.

GREEN COLOR NUMBER PLATE

License plates with green background and white text are for electric vehicles. The decision to use these number plates for EVs was made to encourage people and promote environment-friendly vehicles. Fun Fact: Mahindra Electric was the first company to get green number plates for their electric vehicles. It is used for road-legal electric busses and other electric vehicles.

BLUE COLOR NUMBER PLATE

The blue background license plate with white color numbers are for vehicles that belong to Foreign Diplomats, United Nations (UN), Diplomatic Corps (CD) or Consular Corps (CC). These license plates will not have a state code, but the country code of the diplomat.

NUMBER PLATE WITH UPWARD POINTING ARROW

These license plates are completely different and are used for military vehicles. These Number plates use an upward-pointing arrow called “Broad Arrow” at the beginning, followed by 2 digits that indicate the year of procurement. After that comes the base code and serial number. These license plates are registered under the Ministry of Defense, New Delhi.

No Fancy Fonts

Lastly, vehicle plates with fancy fonts are illegal. Anything other than regular font is prohibited as it becomes difficult to identify and read the numbers. In case of a crime, vehicles with fancy number plates will be difficult to track.