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-   -   How very strange! - License plate from Germany? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/41652-how-very-strange-license-plate-germany.html)

I was at Haji Ali, near the sports club, driving towards South Mumbai when I spotted this car and took a picture with ny phone.
Following Team-BHP rules, I have blanked out the numbers using photoshop.

Very obviously an Audi (even though the 4 circles have been removed), but what is really weird is that it is driving around on the streets of Mumbai with a valid German license plate.

TheOne® has confirmed to me that this is an Ingolstadt license plate. The Audi head office is also in Ingolstadt, I know this. So maybe the car belongs to someone at Audi. I don't know.

I am not getting excited about the car - that's not my scene. I am just wondering if it is legal to drive a car with a European license plate in India.

Is it? Experts?

Hazarding a guess- Embassy/Consulate vehicle??

I have seen ones from the US embassy/consulate bearing weirdo numbers- in Mumbai as well as the Jaipur to Delhi Highway.

Dear Yeti, i think our rules permit vehicles to be driven on foreign license plates if the vehicle has been brought into the country for a very short period (maximum of 6 months i guess) of time. Many months ago i spotted a car with Dubai license plates here at Trivandrum.

Audi A3. Saw the same car at lower parel phoenix mills on that long bridge. Was wondering why it had german plates.

It must be the company car. The black hyundai Azerra's in chennai all have some korean plates.

All Embassy/Consulate cars which i've seen in Bangy run on thier respective country liscence plates.

There are 2 Safari's / 1 land rover / 1 Scorpio that plys in Bangy near Ramaiah Hospital with 1CC N02 and some similar numbers that i've seen.

But i still wonder how and why!

Most of the countries have this facility of allowing vehicles from different countries to be driven on the roads,One needs a permit for the customs. This for a limited period of 6 months, if the vehicle will stay in the country for longer period than the permit has to be stamped [ I think only one more time] than the vehicle has to leave the country and reenter or it it is impounded.
unless it's owned by the embassy, for that matter embassy owned India vehicle also have the plate of the respective countries.

The CC plates are consulate plates for car's in India. What Sam is talking about is that the car is running German plates not CC plates. This means it is not a consulate car.

example: The Dutch consulate in Mumbai has an i10 with CC plates.

This car has been spotted before by members and is a A3 Sportback. In all probability it has been brought down for testing/evaluation purposes by Audi & so is allowed to run on German plates, lots of cars are already running in India under this system (Mainly in Mumbai/Kerala & mainly on Dubai plates) but the restriction is that they have to be sent back after a period of 11 months. I think the scheme is called 'Carnet'.

This is very much possible and I also believe is not new. An auto company is legally permitted to bring down any of its car models in India under a scheme called ATA Carnet. More information of ATA Carnet can be found here:
ATA-Carnet - FICCI is the only National Guarantor in India : FICCI

Some more information on the Carnet system:
Welcome to FICCI ATA Carnet

Why should it not be legal? Any country so far I have been to did allow foreign cars to drive in it. As long as the car is registered etc. No?

I guess these maybe test cars (i cant see the complete pics since the pics dont load). Have seen a few of Audi A3's in Andheri East with German plates.

may this car has been brought from germany by road for short time stay .
according to me this is not a diplomat car as it has CD written on number plate

Dear The,

Stop using logic, this is India. It is probably illegal and some police fellow has been given 1000 pictures of the Mahatma for his photo album.

Saw a beautiful Mercedes Unimog last year up in Leh, Ladakh with German L.Plates. Maybe he took a wrong turn at Stuttgart???

Carnet is available for civillians too. IF you are a NRI/foreign citizen,you can get your car/bike to india and drive it around as you please. Max 6 months.
@Dan met with a mini-van full of germans who had DRIVEN their way to leh. :)

Two reasons why i know why cars are required to be registered with local RTO, if used locally for long:

1) Road tax/user fee which is collected and used for upkeep of infrastructure.
2) Owner identification, with local plates itself its hard to identify an owner, so if one has foreign plates it will be chaos.

And hence foreign plates are allowed in another country for limited/specific period/use.

Oh yeah standardization of plates naming will be another major pain :P