Vehicle identification number
A vehicle identification number is a unique code, including a serial number, used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles, towed vehicles, motorcycles, scooters and mopeds, as defined by the International Organization for Standardization in ISO 3779 and ISO 4030.
There are vehicle history services in several countries that help potential car owners use VINs to find vehicles that are defective or have been written off.
History
VINs were first used in 1954 in the United States. From 1954 to 1965, there was no accepted standard for these numbers, so different manufacturers and even divisions within a manufacturer used different formats. Many were little more than a serial number. Starting in January 1966 the US government mandated that a 13-character VIN be used. This specification was phased in over several years. US manufacturers used them starting in January 1966—by January 1, 1969, all cars sold in the US were required to have the 13 character VIN. The 1966 US specification only stated that the year of manufacture, engine type, and a six digit unique number were required—the individual manufacturers could use the remaining five spaces for whatever they liked. This was not much better than what was in use by some US manufacturers before 1966.In 1981, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the United States standardized the format. It required all on-road vehicles sold to contain a 17-character VIN, which does not include the letters O, I, and Q . This was largely based on the ISO 3779 standard, but is more stringent.
After the introduction of the ISO standard, the manufacturers which produced vehicles for the American market very quickly adjusted to this standard. ISO introduced recommendations for applying the VIN standard and its structure, and the VIN was also used in Europe. However, the sets of information contained in it were introduced gradually. For example, Volkswagen started to encode bigger chunks of information during 1995–1997, and the control digit during 2009–2015 for selected models from the group. The VIN control digit is also used, although not in all brand-models. In the European vehicles, it can be found e.g. in Audi A1.
Classification
There are at least four competing standards used to calculate the VIN.- FMVSS 115, Part 565: Used in United States and Canada
- ISO 3779: Used in Europe and many other parts of the world
- SAE J853: Very similar to the ISO standard
- ADR 61/2 used in Australia, referring to ISO 3779 and 3780
Components
The VIN consists of 17 characters, and only uses capital letters and digits. It comprises the following sections:
World manufacturer identifier
The first three characters uniquely identify the manufacturer of the vehicle using the world manufacturer identifier or WMI code. A manufacturer who builds fewer than 1,000 vehicles per year uses a 9 as the third digit, and the 12th, 13th and 14th position of the VIN for a second part of the identification. Some manufacturers use the third character as a code for a vehicle category, a division within a manufacturer, or both. For example, within , represents Chevrolet passenger cars;, Pontiac passenger cars; and, Chevrolet trucks.The Society of Automotive Engineers in the US assigns WMIs to countries and manufacturers.
The first character of the WMI is typically the region in which the manufacturer is located. In practice, each is assigned to a country of manufacture, although in Europe the country where the continental headquarters is located can assign the WMI to all vehicles produced in that region.
Company mergers and acquisitions can lead to seemingly confusing allocations. For instance, Stellantis, the result of the merger of PSA and FCA, is technically a Dutch corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. VINs of European-made vehicles or their brands, though, still carry WMIs from France and Italy. Additionally, it may not be immediately obvious what particular local subsidiary of the corporation manages type approvals of vehicles and application for WMIs, since this does not necessarily depend on the perceived country association of the respective brand. For example, in at least one case, a model that was newly released years after the merger by an Italian brand carries VINs with new French WMIs. It is to be expected that assignment policies of this kind, often for unpublished reasons, can be found at other manufacturers as well.
In the notation below, assume that letters precede numbers and that zero is the last number. For example, 8X–82 denotes the range 8X, 8Y, 8Z, 81, 82, excluding 80.
Country or region codes
, ISO specifies the following codes per country:| A–C = Africa | H–R = Asia | E, S–Z = Europe | 1–5, 7 = North America | 6 = Oceania | 8–9 = South America |
AA-AH South Africa AJ-AK Côte d'Ivoire AL-AM Lesotho AN-AP Botswana AR-AS Namibia AT-AU Madagascar AV-AW Mauritius AX-AY Tunisia AZ-A1 Cyprus A2-A3 Zimbabwe A4-A5 Mozambique BA-BB Angola BC Ethiopia BF-BG Kenya BH Rwanda BL Nigeria BR Algeria BT Swaziland BU Uganda B3-B4 Libya CA-CB Egypt CF-CG Morocco CL-CM Zambia | H China J Japan KF-KH Israel KL-KR South Korea KS-KT Jordan K1-K3 South Korea K5 Kyrgyzstan L China MA-ME India MF-MK Indonesia ML-MR Thailand MS Myanmar MU Mongolia MX Kazakhstan MY-M0 India NA-NE Iran NF-NG Pakistan NJ Iraq NL-NR Turkey NS-NT Uzbekistan NV Azerbaijan NX Tajikistan NY Armenia N1-N5 Iran N7-N8 Turkey PA-PC Philippines PF-PG Singapore PL-PR Malaysia PS-PT Bangladesh PV Cambodia P5-P0 India RA-RB United Arab Emirates RF-RK Taiwan RL-RN Vietnam RL-RN Vietnam RP Laos RS-RT Saudi Arabia R1-R7 Hong Kong | E Russia SA-SM United Kingdom SN-ST Germany SU-SZ Poland S1-S2 Latvia S3 Georgia S4 Iceland TA-TH Switzerland TJ-TP Czech Republic TR-TV Hungary TW-T2 Portugal T3-T5 Serbia T6 Andorra T7-T8 Netherlands UA-UC Spain UH-UM Denmark UN-UR Ireland UU-UX Romania U1-U2 North Macedonia U5-U7 Slovakia U8-U0 Bosnia and Herzegovina VA-VE Austria VF-VR France VS-VW Spain VX-V2 France V3-V5 Croatia V6-V8 Estonia W Germany XA-XC Bulgaria XD-XE Russia XF-XH Greece XJ-XK Russia XL-XR Netherlands XS-XW Russia XX-XY Luxembourg XZ-X1 Russia YA-YE Belgium YF-YK Finland YN Malta YS-YW Sweden YX-Y2 Norway Y3-Y5 Belarus Y6-Y9 Ukraine ZA-ZU Italy ZX-ZZ Slovenia Z1 San Marino Z3-Z5 Lithuania Z6-Z0 Russia | 1 United States 2 Canada 3A-3X Mexico 34 Nicaragua 35 Dominican Republic 36 Honduras 37 Panama 38-39 Puerto Rico 4 United States 5 United States 7 United States | 6 Australia 6Y-61 New Zealand | 8A-8E Argentina 8F-8G Chile 8L-8N Ecuador 8S-8W Peru 8X-8Z Venezuela 82 Bolivia 84 Costa Rica 9A-9E Brazil 9F-9G Colombia 9S-9V Uruguay 91–90 Brazil |