High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In New Zealand, vehicle registration plates (usually called number plates) contain up to six alphanumeric characters, depending on the type of vehicle and the date of registration. Number plates display these characters on the back of powered vehicles and non-powered vehicles such as caravans and trailers authorised to travel on New Zealand roads. Most vehicles (i.e. cars, trucks, vans, etc) are required to display plates on the front as well.Private cars, taxis, and heavier road vehicles in New Zealand have number plates with up to six characters. Until 2001 these number plates had two letters followed by one to four numbers (format LLnnnn), the sequence having started with "AA100" and continuing through to "ZZ9989" chronologically (for example, SE6800 would have been issued in 1993). An observer could therefore ascertain the approximate date of first registration of a vehicle by means of the number plate.