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Plate Atlas
Driving abroad

Driving in Austria

The licence plates you will see on the road in Austria, how to read them, and what a car from abroad needs.

AUSTRIA50100130

Speed limits

Default limits for cars, unless signs say otherwise, as on the signs at border crossings.

In towns
50 km/h
Outside towns
100 km/h
Motorways
130 km/h

Before you drive

Vignette and tolls
Motorways and expressways (A and S roads) need a vignette for vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes. A digital vignette, registered to the plate number, is accepted as well as the windscreen sticker; the official shop is shop.asfinag.at. Some sections have their own toll on top.

Rules and prices change. Check the official site before you travel.

A

Country code

Cars registered here show the country code A. Plates carry it on the blue EU band, which counts as the country sign: no separate oval sticker is needed in the European Economic Area, and the plate is also valid in other countries of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. A car from abroad shows its own country code at the rear in the same way.

Reading the plates

Plates carry an area code that shows where the car was registered: 122 codes across 94 districts. For example:

N 123AB
Area codes on the mapAll area codes

Plates you will see

  • LZ 123AB

    Standard · Since 1990

Special plates

Older plates still on the road

  • W 123.456

    Standard · 1947–1989

Plate formats and history of Austria

Sources