# Commission Regulation (EU) No 19/2011 of 11 January 2011 concerning type-approval requirements for the manufacturer’s statutory plate and for the vehicle identification number of motor vehicles and their trailers and implementing Regulation (EC) No 661/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning type-approval requirements for the general safety of motor vehicles, their trailers and systems, components and separate technical units intended therefor (Text with EEA relevance), Division 2.3

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

The VDS shall consist of six alphanumeric characters, capital roman letters or Arabic numerals, which shall serve to indicate the general characteristics of the vehicle. Where the manufacturer does not use one or more of the six characters, the unused spaces shall be filled in with alphanumeric characters at the manufacturer’s discretion in order that the total number of characters required shall be 6.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2011/19/annex/I/part/B/division/2/division/2.3 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-regulation-2011-19/annex-I/part-B/division-2/division-2.3
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.