What is the difference between Shanghai A and Shanghai B license plates?
2 Answers
The differences between Shanghai A and Shanghai B license plates are: 1. Different numbering periods: Shanghai A plates were issued earlier, while Shanghai B plates were issued later. 2. Different vehicle types: Shanghai A plates are for public vehicles such as buses and trucks; Shanghai B plates are for both public and private vehicles. License plates in Shanghai include: Shanghai A, Shanghai B, Shanghai D, Shanghai E, Shanghai F, Shanghai G, Shanghai H, Shanghai J, Shanghai K, Shanghai M, Shanghai N, Shanghai C, and Shanghai R. License plates, also known as vehicle registration plates, serve the primary purpose of identifying the region to which a vehicle belongs and can be used to trace the owner and registration information of the vehicle.
Both Hu A and Hu B are license plates for urban areas in Shanghai, with the main difference being the issuance time. Hu A was the first batch of license plates issued in the early 1990s. Later, as the number of vehicles increased and the available plate numbers became insufficient, the Hu B plates were introduced. Nowadays, most vehicles with Hu A plates on the road are older cars, while Hu B plates are relatively newer. However, there is no functional difference between them—both can freely enter and exit the urban areas without any restrictions. I’ve been driving for fifteen years and have seen Hu A plates replaced with Hu B ones, which is simply a random allocation when renewing an expired plate. There’s no need to worry about which one is more prestigious. On the other hand, Hu C plates are truly different—they are suburban plates and cannot enter the outer ring road.
