Vehicle registration plates of Bulgaria


Standard Bulgarian vehicle registration plates display black glyphs on a white background, together with – on the left-hand side of the plate – a blue vertical "EU strip" showing the flag of Europe and, below it, the country code for Bulgaria: BG.
The characters displayed in the main field of the plate are:
The format is thus XX NNNN YY, where XX is the province code, NNNN is the serial number, and YY is the series. Since 1992, only glyphs that are common to both the Cyrillic and the Latin alphabets have been used on Bulgarian plates.

Format

Letters

Only 12 letters are used. In Bulgarian order, these are: А, В, Е, К, М, Н, О, Р, С, Т, У, Х. All of these are used as part of the province codes. Only nine letters are used in the series, of which "А" is the only vowel. The three that are not used in the series, are Е, reserved exclusively for trailers and caravans, О and У.

Numbers

Number plates with a single letter in the series, i.e. "X NNNN Y", appear mainly on mopeds and motorcycles, but can rarely be seen on some older vehicles that have failed to undergo the obligatory re-registration. The format "X AAAAAA" may be used in vanity plates, where "A" represents either letters or numbers chosen by the owner. The price of such a custom plate is a bit over €3,500, so these are rare.

Other

Not counting the "Е" series, which is reserved for trailers, nor the vanity plates with no series letters, there is a total of 810,000 possible combinations for each province. This total ran out in Sofia in late 2005, and was replaced by "СА" in early 2006; In 2014, "CB" began to be used.
Note that the number "0" is written normally, while the letter "O" is egg-shaped.

History

Until 1958

Black letters on a white background, in the format: X NN-NN.

1958–1986

State vehicles retained the black on white format, while private vehicles were given black plates with white lettering. The format was X- NNNN. after reaching 9999 a letter was set in front of the 4 numbers X-Y-NNNN.
In the early 80's, after all the combinations with the letter "C" were exhausted in Sofia, a new format was introduced in the capital beginning with "A", namely AYY-NNNN. Plates with the combinations AAB-NNNN and ABC-NNNN were issued before the standard was changed once again in 1986.

1986–1992

A new issue of plates is introduced with the standard format of "X NNNN Y". Yellow for private plates, white for state-owned vehicles, with previous-style plates no longer valid. These new plates used ISO 7591 standard font & size and had reflective surfaces.
"E" was designated as the series letter for trailers, and "Ч" for private freight and private mass transport vehicles

1992–present

Since 1992, the letter license plate code used letters common to both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, irrespective of whether they have the same phonetic value or not: А, В, Е, К, М, Н, О, Р, С, Т, У, Х, the same as today. A similar system is used in Greece, Russia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ukraine. Regions are as per. The new 1992 issue of plates used a white background, in the format "X NNNN Y". All former yellow background plates became invalid. In 1993, The hyphens/stops between letter and number blocks were also phased out and also became invalid in 1993. During the mid-1990s, the "X NNNN Y" combinations began to run out in many provinces, and so a second letter was added to the series. Between 2000-2008, the left-hand blue band Bulgaria flag was phased in, eventually becoming a legal requirement on 1 July 2006. These plates were all in the "X NNNN YY" format, but the shape of the letters was changed to the current standard – namely, the letters were made more "square" and heavier-set than previously. These plates all began with the series "AA", thereby repeating some combinations that had already existed before, albeit without the EU strip. On 1 January 2007 Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union, and the standardised Europlate was introduced soon after.

Special types

Special vehicles

In use are also three other types of plates in format of nnn X nnn:
These three types use a white background with black text and a red vertical strip on the right side. Usually, the expiry date is inscribed on the red strip.

Military and police vehicles

Since 2006, all military vehicles' plates are subject to change with the new ones: the letters "BA" and 6 digits — the form is "BA NNN NNN".
The same form is adopted for the new license plates of the Civil Protection Service of Bulgaria, beginning with "CP" followed by 5 digits — "CP NN NNN". On the left side of both kinds of plates there is a blue EU-standard vertical strip.

Foreigner vehicles

Cars belonging to foreigners and imported into Bulgaria for a limited period of time are light blue with white characters, starting with "ХХ", followed by four digits and two small digits denoting the expiry year. From 2019 "XH" is used after "XX".

Diplomatic plates

Diplomatic and consular car number plates are similar to ordinary ones, but are recognizably different in their color: white symbols on a red background. Plates starting with "C" indicate diplomatic status, "CC" indicate consular status, while "CT" is used for cars belonging to other staff of diplomatic representations. Additionally, the first two digits of the numeric group represent the country of the diplomatic or consular mission to which the vehicle belongs. Two smaller digits in the lower right corner denote the expiry year of the plate.

Provincial codes

After the requirement that all number plate codes had to be compatible with both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets came into force:
Current codeProvinceOld codeBulgarian spellings, notes
АBurgas ProvinceБс, ББургАс
ВVarna ProvinceВн, ВВарна
ВНVidin ProvinceВд, ВДВидиН
ВРVratsa ProvinceВр, ВРВРаца
ВТVeliko Tarnovo ProvinceВТВелико Търново''
ЕBlagoevgrad ProvinceБл, БЛБлагоЕвград
ЕВGabrovo ProvinceГб, ГГаброво
ЕНPleven ProvinceПл, ПЛПлевЕН
КKardzhali ProvinceКж, ККърджали
КНKyustendil ProvinceКн, КНКюстеНдил
МMontana ProvinceМх, ММонтана
НShumen ProvinceШШумеН
ОВLovech ProvinceЛч, ЛЛОВеч
РRuse ProvinceРс, РРусе
РАPazardzhik ProvinceПз, ПЗПазарджик
РВPlovdiv ProvinceПд, ППловдив
РКPernik ProvinceПк, ПКПеРниК
РРRazgrad ProvinceРЗРазгРад
С, СА, СBSofia Сф, С, АСофия
СНSliven ProvinceСл, СЛСливеН
СМSmolyan ProvinceСм, СМСМолян
СОSofia ProvinceСФСофия Област
ССSilistra ProvinceСс, СССилиСтра
СТStara Zagora ProvinceСтЗ, СЗСТара Загора
ТTargovishte ProvinceТщ, ТТърговище
ТХDobrich ProvinceТх, ТХДобрич
УYambol ProvinceЯб, ЯЯмбол
ХHaskovo ProvinceХс, ХХасково

Diplomatic plate codes

CodeCountryCodeCountryCodeCountryCodeCountry
01265176
02275277
03285378
042954N/A79
053055N/A80
06N/A315681
07325782
08335883World Bank
09345984
10356085EBRD
11366186
12376287
13386388
14396489
15406590
16416691
17426792
18436893N/A
19446994N/A
20457095
21467196N/A
22477297N/A
23487398
2449IMF7499
25507500N/A