Ever wondered why DVLA Personalised Registrations have so many number plates on their website...? (usually somewhere between 25 and 35 million)
No....?
Well, I'm gonna tell you anyway.
Fact is there could be an awful lot more but they withdraw most of the new issues from sale after the first month. We don't know how or why the survivors are selected but do know the maths to work out how many there should be;-
Current Style
23x23x1x1x24x24x24 = 7,312,896 new releases every 6 months since “51” (times 14) = 102,380,544 up to and inc. “08”.
Prefix Style
1x9x10x10x23x23x23 = 10,950,300 Plus
1x9x10x23x23x23 = 1,095,030 Plus
1x9x23x23x23 = 109,503
Sub Total = 12154833 on every new release from “A” to “Y” (times 21) = 255,251,493
Total = 357,632,037
There are only 30 about million cars on the road.
Even if you said that, to date, 60 million plates had been used up to include lorries, bikes, scraped vehicles and private plate purchases etc. the remainder would still be enough to put most punters off searching.
Would have been even better for Reggie though.
If you wanted to include the Suffix range then the total = 612,883,530 give or take.
(PS:- There may be some of you who notice that this equation isn't exactly correct and feel the need to contact us about it..........Just don't, eh?)
Reg
