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Plate Atlas
Driving abroad

Driving in Spain

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

SPAIN5090120

Speed limits

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

In towns
50 km/h
Outside towns
90 km/h
Motorways
120 km/h

30 km/h on urban streets with one lane in each direction.

Before you drive

Vignette and tolls
There is no vignette. Many autopistas (AP roads) are toll roads, and the law requires a free alternative route next to them; autovías (A roads) are always free.
Environmental zones
A 2021 law requires every city of more than 50,000 people to set up a low-emission zone (zona de bajas emisiones, ZBE). Madrid's started in 2018 and Barcelona's in 2020. Access depends on the vehicle's DGT environmental label, and each city sets its own rules.

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

E

Country code

Cars registered here show the country code E. 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 no regional code, so the letters and numbers do not tell where a car is from.

These codes are from the previous system (1900–2000). Plates issued today carry no regional code, but older cars still have these. Area codes on the map

Plates you will see

  • 1234 BCD

    Standard · Since 2000

Older plates still on the road

  • M-1234-AB

    Standard · 1971–2000

  • M-123456

    Standard · 1900–1971

Plate formats and history of Spain

Sources