Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

requires its residents to register their motor vehicle

Motor vehicle

A motor vehicle or road vehicle is a self-propelled wheeled vehicle that does not operate on rails, such as trains or trolleys. The vehicle propulsion is provided by an engine or motor, usually by an internal combustion engine, or an electric motor, or some combination of the two, such as hybrid...

s and display vehicle registration plate

Vehicle registration plate

A vehicle registration plate is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies the vehicle within the issuing region's database...

s called "patentes". Formerly, it consisted of two letters followed by four numbers in the format AB-12-34, but combinations were exhausted in April 2008. The system adopted to replace the old one consists of four letters followed by two numbers in the format AB-CD-12. Vowels are not used in order to prevent profanity, and the letter Q is not used because of confusion with the number 0.

The same system is used in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 (see Vehicle registration plates of the Netherlands). As in the Netherlands, in Chile the plate provides no information of where the vehicle was registered.