EU Number Plates in Malaysia

Putting European Union type number plates on cars is the new trend these days. I think it started to become fashionable in Singapore around last year, and neighbouring Thailand and Malaysia is also quickly catching up on the fad. I have seen various cars with the iconic blue stripe with an EU star being pasted on their number plates. It is not entirely legal but I highly doubt owners will run into any problems as it is just a sticker that does not in any way make identification of the vehicle registration numbers difficult. But this particular car that I happen to come across is certainly at the very far end of what is acceptable. Even the background and character colours have been changed! Had the car not been spotted in Malaysia, you would think that this really is an EU registered car!


How did the owner get away with it? Same way how so many cars have been getting away with illegally fitted HID light bulbs, window tinting, etc etc. Law enforcement here is a joke. And maybe, police officers might not even realise it is an illegal plate, thinking that it is one of those limousine taxi vehicles / embassy vehicles and what not.


A typical Malaysian car plate looks like this. Well of course, not all of them carry such subliminal message related to phallic subjects. If you need this to be pointed out anymore obvious, think what does the combination PEN15 suggests.

Across the causeway though, things are very different. The Singaporean Land Transport Authority (LTA) is cracking down hard on vehicles with EU plates. Not so much because of the blue stripe or background colour but rather mainly because of the non-standardised character sizes and spacing.

If you notice, Singapore registered vehicles all have a very rigidly enforced standardised characters and figures. I can't be sure but I suspect that this has a lot to do with the use the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantry type tolls rather than our conventional gated tolls which causes a lot of unnecessary congestion. It's a bit like our SmartTag, only that it works a lot faster and is a lot more reliable (it's a large contributor to the Singaporean government's coffers and you can be bloody sure that any Singaporean government system whose function is to suck money from the people, there will be 0% downtime / failure). ERP relies a lot on cameras to detect violators who enter ERP zones without sufficient credit in the cash cards / faulty IU (in-car unit). Use of non-standard reflective materials and different fonts might cause problems, but as explained, however tiny the probability is, it must be stamped out. I understand that system is fairly robust as is even able to detect Malaysian registered cars (whose number plates are obviously far from being standardised) who violate the ERP rules. Violators will be stopped when they drive out of Woodlands checkpoint. 

It is not just German cars that are fitting these EU plates. Just look at this ricer boy's old Honda City, apparently captured on camera in Thailand. This owner went a step up from the E39 seen above, he even did away with the Thai plate completely!