New Pink License Plates in France: What You Need to Know
French authorities began issuing bright pink temporary vehicle registration plates on January 1, 2026, in a bid to curb registration fraud and improve enforcement. The new plates, reserved for vehicles operating with “WW” or “W garage” certificates, are a significant departure from the standard French registration plate design.
The initiative, formalized by a decree published on November 21, 2025, aims to address longstanding issues with the visibility and tracking of vehicles with provisional registrations. Previously, these plates were indistinguishable from standard plates except for the “WW” prefix, making it difficult for law enforcement to identify vehicles operating outside of the legal timeframe. The new pink plates are intended to be immediately recognizable.
“The implementation of these very recognizable pink plates will improve the identification and control of vehicles with provisional registration,” stated Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Interior. “This concerns more than 400,000 provisional WW and W garage registrations per year.”
Beyond the color change, the new plates also display a clear expiration date, a feature previously absent. This allows police to instantly verify the validity of the registration without needing to access vehicle databases or registration documents. The date is displayed on the right side of the plate.
The “WW” certificate is commonly used for vehicles imported from other countries while owners await full registration. The system allows for legal operation for a limited period, generally four months, while administrative processes are completed. However, abuse of the system, with drivers exceeding the validity period, has been a recurring problem. The previous system also suffered from the re-use of plate numbers, leading to instances of incorrect fines being issued to previous owners.
The change is already noticeable in regions bordering Luxembourg, where a significant number of vehicles are imported into France. The Automobile Magazine reported an increase in the import of vehicles from Luxembourg, driven by the Autofestival and a market offering newer and better-equipped cars.
While authorities hope the new plates will significantly reduce fraud, the effectiveness of the measure against more sophisticated forms of vehicle registration manipulation remains to be seen. The government has not yet commented on strategies to address the issue of duplicate registrations, which officials acknowledge is a separate and more complex challenge.