The Roads and Transport Authority, RTA, has announced that effective from the 1st January, 2019 - it will start issuing the new generation of the redesigned vehicle number plates at the time of registration renewal and the processing of plate-replacement transactions.

RTA said that as of July 2019, it will start the mandatory issuance of the new plates to vehicles registered in the name of public and private organisations. In January 2020, RTA will start the mandatory issuance of plates for vehicles registered in the names of individuals. From now and up to January 2020, the replacement of vehicle plates for individual car owners will be elective. The changing of licensing plates involves a one-time cost ranging from AED35 for the short plate to AED50 for the long plate.

The introduction of the new generation of vehicle plates is part of RTA’s efforts to standardise the design of vehicle plates in Dubai in line with the newly designed plates featuring three elements: Dubai brand, number and code. The move is also consistent with RTA’s preparations for issuing dual code plates, especially as the stock of single-code plates is nearing exhaustion.