Hong Kong: Single-letter number plate sells for HK$20 million
A private number plate bearing only the letter “H” has sold for HK$20 million (GBP £1.9 million) in a Hong Kong government auction. The selling price was approximately 4,000 times the plate's reserve price, and the HKD $20m price tag makes "H" the fourth most expensive number plate ever sold in Hong Kong. The number plate attracted more than 50 bids and after the first five bids, the price had already reached HKD $5 million.
The fact that the purchaser, a man dressed in black wearing a face mask, declined to answer media questions as he left the venue just added a layer of mystery to what was already a headline story.
Other strong performers amongst the 49 number plates sold at the Chinese New Year auction of vehicle registration numbers included the numerical plates “30” (HK$4.55 million), “101” (HK$1.01 million) and “2288” (HK$470,000).
United Arab Emirates: Number plate DD 6 becomes the world's third most expensive
Dubai's latest ‘Most Noble Number’ charity auction, held on Saturday 7 March 2026, saw the number plate (DD) 6 sell for AED 37 million (£7,519,437), thus becoming the third most expensive number plate in the world.
The auction, organised by Emirates Auction and Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), featured lots comprising both private number plates and coveted, premium mobile numbers. The auction was a charity event, raising funds for the Edge of Life campaign, a charity aiming to provide life-saving support to millions of children worldwide who are suffering from malnutrition.
Several other multi-million dirham number plates were sold at the auction, including (DD) 99, which inspired a frenetic bidding war. Its starting price was AED 1 million, but a flurry of bids pushed that to AED 8.9 million (£1,815,460) before the hammer fell. (DD) 25 started at AED 4 million, eventually selling for AED 6.4 million (£1,305,495). The number plates (DD) 100 and (DD) 999 each sold for AED 5.1 million (£1,040,443).
USA: New California law could mean licence plates for ebikes
A new bill, introduced by the state's Democratic Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, would require electric bikes capable of reaching 20 miles per hour or faster to be registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and to display a licence plate.
Ms Bauer-Kahan told a press conference that the class 2 and 3 ebikes she intended to target with the bill can be modified to go over 60 miles per hour.
Ms Bauer-Kahan said, “When you and I drive on the highway, we abide by the speed limit. We do it because we could be held accountable for speeding and making people’s lives less safe, and the same needs to apply to our ebike riders.”
However, some transportation researchers and ebike supporters have challenged the data informing the bill and have claimed that the data and the consequent narrative are misleading.
Asha Weinstein Agrawal, a researcher with the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University in California, pointed out that the injury statistics used often make no distinction between legal ebikes and those capable of reaching high speeds.
Ms Agrawal said combining those categories risked skewing the relevant numbers and unfairly penalising people riding perfectly legal ebikes.
A spokesperson for ebike advocacy group CalBike said the legislation focuses on the wrong problem.
Jared Sanchez said, “It’s a scapegoat focusing on legal e-bikes and trying to prohibit them further rather than addressing the real issue.”
Mr Sanchez also said that improving infrastructure, including protected bike lanes, would do more to prevent injuries than licence plates.
He also expressed the belief that the bill was inspired by a similar New Jersey law.
“To really change state law around what a bicycle is and turning it into a motor vehicle at least for those set of requirements, is really concerning and alarming to us,” he said.
State legislators will consider the bill in the coming months.
USA: New Pennsylvania licence plate causes unexpected problems
Pennsylvania's new licence plate design seems to be causing headaches for officials. The “Let Freedom Ring” licence plate design was launched in summer 2025 to promote Pennsylvania's role in the founding of America 250 years ago. However, automatic number plate recognition systems (ANPR) are experiencing problems distinguishing between the numbers zero and eight on the plates. The issue has been attributed to the fact that the new zeros have a slash through them in order to make it easier to spot the difference between the letter O and the numerical digit 0.
While the slash does, indeed, solve the issue posed by the similarity between those two characters, it has introduced a new point of confusion as ANPR cannot now reliably tell if the digit is Ø (zero with a slash) or 8.
The change to the numbers used on the plates was reportedly made in consultation with Pennsylvania State Police and in accordance with a best practice recommendation by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.
There are no plans to make more changes, or reverse the ones already implemented, as officials say that ANPR systems will eventually learn to recognise the new zeros with the slash. Time will tell.
