Reunion island registrations
Reunion is a French overseas department that is a small island, approximately 2,510 sq. km. It is located in the Indian Ocean, off of Southern Africa, east of Madagascar. The climate is tropical, but moderates with elevation, cool and dry from May to November, hot and rainy from November to April. Terrain is mostly rugged and mountainous with fertile lowlands along the coast. Natural hazards include periodic, devastating cyclones from December to April and an active volcano on the south-eastern coast called Piton de la Fournaise.

The population of Reunion is approximately 800,000. The ethnic background of the Reunionese people include French, African, Malagasy, Chinese, Pakistani and Indian. French is the official language with Creole being widely used.

Oval : F
ISO : RE

Normal series :
Series of up to two numerals and one serial letter from July 1950? : 1 A 974 to 99 Z 974
Series of up to two numerals and two serial letters from September 1951? : 1 AA 974 to 99 LZ 974
Series of up to three numerals (two or three numerals later) and two serial letters (MA not issued) from July 1965 : 1 MB 974 to 999 ZZ 974
Series of two numerals and three serial letters from 17 October 1991 : 11 AAA 974 to 99 AZA 974

--> National file of license plates numbers

Series of two or three numerals and three serial letters from 1 July 1993 : 11 AZB 974 to 999 AZZ 974
Series of two or three numerals and three serial letters from 29 April 1994 to 13 October 2009 : 11 BAA 974 à 388 BZK 974 (last number issued)

--> SIV

Series of two serial letters, three numerals and two serial letters from 15 April 2009 : AA-003-AA (first number issued localy)

Nota on the FNI period :
From 1993 to 2009, normal issued plates were, by mandate, black on white for the front plate and black on reflective yellow (or white from 2007) for the rear plate.
Since 1994 commenced the Euroband plate with the 12 golden stars upon a blue background and the letter F denoting France. These plates still follow black on white and black on yellow design.
Since october 1996, as plates with Euroband were not large enough (520 mm) for 9 characters, the digit 9 may be placed over digit 7 in the 974 code.

A project of splitting Réunion in two departments, North-Reunion and South-Reunion was discussed till november 2000 : department codes could have become 97A and 97B as for Corsica when split in two departments.




Official series :
Series of five numerals (common of the four overseas departments 971 to 974) from 1946? : 10001 DZ to 54201 DZ (maximum reported)
Series of four numerals and one serial letter from 2 January 1992 to 31 December 2008 : 974D-1001A to 974D-4117A (maximum seen)
--> SIV

Nota : some observations show an use of the letter R instead of the letter D. Numbers reported : 974R-3207A and 974R-3215A

Diplomatic series :
The consular plates are used as in the mother country, like 53 K 3.974 or 53 C 8.974 Z (53 is for India), in white/green.

Special series :
Garages :
Series of up to four numerals : 1 W 974 to 1105 W 974 (14/04/2009 and last number issued)
--> SIV W series

Provisional :
Series of up to five numerals reissued each year : 1 WW 974 à 34131 WW 974 (maximum reported on 12/12/2005)
--> SIV WW series

Exportations outside the European Union :
Series of up to four numerals and one serial letter (between W and E) from 18 June 2003 : 1 WAE 974 to 9999 WAE 974
Series of up to four numerals and one serial letter (between W and E) from 6 December 2007 to 13 October 2009 : 1 WBE 974 to 4600 WBE 974 (last number issued)
--> SIV

Exportations inside the European Union :
Series of up to four numerals and one serial letter (between W and L) from 4 July 2003 to 13 October 2009 : 1 WAL 974 to 325 WAL 974 (last number issued)
--> SIV

Temporary transits (white/red) :
Series of up to three numerals from 1954 : 1 TT 974 to 116 TT 974 (maximum reported)
Series of up to three numerals and two serial letters from 2 January 1994 to 14 April 2009 : 1 TAA 974 to 3 TAA 974 (29/03/2001 and last number issued)
--> SIV, « vehicle in temporary transit » use




Article written by Stephen Cioffi, Jean-Emmanuel Chevry and Jean-François Żuraw