The license plate allocation system in force in Spain consists of an alphanumeric code made up of four numbers and three letters. This combination of numbers and letters appears after a blue band with the letter E under the stars of the European Union flag and has been used since 2000 when the previous system was replaced with the provincial initials (M, for Madrid). ; B, from Barcelona; CS, from Castellón, etc)
This system, which the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) adopted 23 years ago to harmonize it with that of other EU countries, allows a total of 80 million registrations. Starting with 0000, up to 9999, we find up to 10,000 different combinations with these four-digit numbers, which in turn are coordinated with a set of three letters. Taking into account the current rate of registrations, Traffic estimates that it will not be necessary to change this procedure in the next 40 years.
Although the system admits all possible combinations of figures, such as 0013, a number that is traditionally associated with bad luck and that is often skipped in the rows of airplane seats, the same is not the case with letters. The combinations formed by these characters have a peculiarity: they do not use the vowels, so all the series begin with BBB and end with ZZZ.
The vowels are excluded from this system to avoid offensive combinations (ANO, PIS, PEO…), acronyms that have some kind of meaning (ONG, ONU, ETA…) and proper names (ANA, EVA, TEO…). Nor do other letters appear to avoid possible mistakes with the identification of the license plates. We will not see the Ñ or the Q on any plate because it is easy to be confused with the N, the O and the number zero.
For their part, the LL and CH, still included in the alphabet when the European license plate system came into force (they later disappeared as they were considered digraphs), were discarded from the beginning as they were incompatible with the license plate design, which does not admit four characters in the last group.
Now, it is inevitable that, despite the fact that the license plate allocation system dispenses with vowels, there are plates that display acronyms with significant connotations. Some combinations of three letters give rise to initials of political parties, associations, airport codes, etc…
Next, we can see some of those combinations that can be formed in the Spanish plates. Some of them are still unpublished because license plates are currently being assigned with the block of letters that begins with M.
HDP (Son of a bitch): Insult.
LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, for its acronym in German): Hallucinogenic drug.
TNT (Trinitrotoluene): Explosive.
CNP (National Police Corps): National Police.
KGB (Committee for State Security, for its acronym in Russian): Intelligence agency and secret police of the extinct Soviet Union.
KKK (Ku Klux Klan): American white supremacist group that promotes racism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism, as well as homophobia, anti-Catholicism, and anti-communism.
CJB (Badalona Youth Club)
CNB (Barcelona Swimming Club)
FCB (Football Club Barcelona).
LFP (Professional Football League).
NFL (American Football League).
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation): Public television of the United Kingdom.
CNN (Cable News Network): United States television channel.
MTV (Music Television): United States television channel.
NBC (National Broadcasting Company): United States television channel.
TNT (Turner Network Television): United States television channel.
TVC (Television of Catalonia): Autonomous television channel.
BCN (Barcelona): Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport.
CDG (Charles de Gaulle): Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Paris (France).
JFK (John Fitzgerald Kennedy): John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York (United States).
TFN (Tenerife North): Tenerife North Airport-City of La Laguna.
TFS (Tenerife South): Tenerife South Airport, located in Granadilla de Abona.
DKV (German Health Insurance Company)
MMT (Mutual Madrid Taxi)
MGS (Mutua General de Seguros)
BMW (Bavaria Motor Factories, for its acronym in German): German vehicle manufacturer.
BYD (Build Your Dreams): Chinese vehicle manufacturer.
DKW (Steam-Powered Car, for its acronym in German): Historic German car and motorcycle brand, now defunct.
KTM (Kraftfahrzeug Trunkenpolz Mattighofen): Original name of the shop selling DKW motorcycles and cars belonging to the Austrian engineer Hans Trunkenpolz, which gave rise to the KTM motorcycle, bicycle and automobile firm.
BNG (Galician Nationalist Bloc).
PNV (Basque Nationalist Party).
PRC (Cantabrian Regionalist Party).
PSC (Party of the Socialists of Catalonia).
CGT (General Confederation of Labor): Association of workers.
CNT (National Labor Confederation): Confederation of trade unions.
DGT (General Directorate of Traffic): Agency under the Ministry of the Interior responsible for implementing road policy on state-owned roads.
KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken): Fast food chain.
KLM (Royal Aviation Company, for its acronym in Dutch). Netherlands airline.
PDF (Portable Document Format).
SMS (Simple Message Service).
TMB (Metropolitan Transport of Barcelona)
TNC (National Theater of Catalonia)
VHS (Home Video System). It was a very popular recording system in the 1990s.
