Dubai motorists will be required to upgrade their vehicle licence plate by 2020, officials have announced.
The emirate's Roads and Transport Authority said the mandatory move would apply to cars registered to private owners, private companies and government departments.
Announcing the measure in a tweet, officials said the deadline for the ruling would be January 1, 2020.
Previously, the RTA has said the upgrade was due to a "new strategy", although it was not immediately clear what this was.
As of January 1, 2020 it is mandatory for all personal vehicles to get the new designed license plates. As for vehicles owned by private and public sectors, their license plates can be changed starting July 2019. pic.twitter.com/Rd0i1922vS
— RTA (@rta_dubai) December 20, 2018
The cost of replacing registrations will vary, with prices for plates with lower numbers starting at Dh35 and those with higher digits costing up to Dh50.
New car registrations from January next year will be given the newly designed licence plates, the RTA said.
"As of July next year, RTA will start the mandatory issuance of the new plates to vehicles registered in the name of public and private organisations," a statement from the authority said.
"The changing of licensing plates involves a one-time cost ranging from Dh35 for the short plate to Dh50 for the long plate.
"The introduction of the new generation of vehicle plates is part of RTA’s efforts to standardise the design of vehicle plates in Dubai in line with the newly designed plates featuring three elements: Dubai brand, number and code."
Directions for how to change a license plates can be found on the RTA website. The plate can be ordered and paid for online and then picked up from an RTA centre.
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