Reference
WMI codes explained
The first three characters of a VIN say who built the vehicle and what type it is. They say less about where it was built than most people assume.
What the WMI is
The first three characters of a VIN are the World Manufacturer Identifier. Federal rules in 49 CFR 565.15 say this section “shall consist of three characters that occupy positions one through three” and that it must uniquely identify the manufacturer and the type of vehicle. The rest of the VIN, described in how to read a VIN, only makes sense once you know whose scheme you are reading, so the WMI is where every decode starts.
Note the second half of that definition. A WMI identifies a manufacturer and a vehicle type, which is why large manufacturers hold many of them. In NHTSA's vPIC data, Honda holds 1HG for passenger cars and 5FN for multipurpose passenger vehicles, both registered to American Honda Motor Co., and Ford holds 1FA for cars and 1FT for trucks. Our makes pages list every WMI vPIC returns for twenty common makes; Chevrolet's list alone runs to 110 codes.
Who assigns them
In the United States, NHTSA has contracted with SAE International to coordinate the assignment of manufacturer identifiers, under 49 CFR 565.16. Manufacturers send their requests to SAE, which checks for conflicts and confirms the assignment in writing; requests sent to NHTSA are passed on. NHTSA makes the resulting assignments searchable through vPIC, the same database our decoder queries.
The first character and region
The first character broadly indicates the region where the identifier was issued, and the first two characters usually narrow it to a country. How to read a VIN has a table by first character. The vPIC records behind our makes pages show the pattern:
| WMI | Registered to | Country in vPIC | Vehicle type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1HG | American Honda Motor Co., Inc. | United States | Passenger car |
| 2HG | Honda of Canada Mfg. | Canada | Passenger car |
| 3FA | Ford Motor Company, Mexico | Mexico | Passenger car |
| 5YJ | Tesla, Inc. | United States | Passenger car |
| JM1 | Mazda Motor Corporation | Japan | Passenger car |
| KMH | Hyundai Motor Co | South Korea | Passenger car |
| LYV | Daqing Volvo Car Manufacturing Co Ltd | China | MPV |
| SAL | Jaguar Land Rover Limited | United Kingdom | MPV |
| WBA | BMW AG | Germany | Passenger car |
| WP0 | Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG | Germany | Passenger car |
| YV1 | Volvo Car Corporation | Sweden | Passenger car |
| 6G1 | General Motors LLC | Australia | Passenger car |
| 8BT | Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (Sprinter) | Argentina | MPV |
| 9BF | Ford Motor Company Brasil Ltda. | Brazil | Truck |
MPV is vPIC's abbreviation for multipurpose passenger vehicle. Names are converted from vPIC's capitals, and country names shortened from forms such as “UNITED STATES (USA)”.
Where the region rule bends
That is the tidy version. The same data has exceptions worth knowing about before you read too much into a first character.
- US codes beginning with 7. Older charts put 7 in the Oceania range, and vPIC does list 7A5 for Ford Motor Company of New Zealand. But it also lists 7SA for Tesla, 7FA for American Honda, 7JR for Volvo Car USA, 7SV for Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas and 7MM for Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, USA, all with the United States as the country.
- A 9 that is not Brazil. 9BW is registered to Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., and vPIC gives its country as Mexico.
- Blank countries. Some records carry no country at all, among them Honda's JHM and Chevrolet's KL7.
None of this makes a VIN invalid. It means the first character is a strong hint about origin, not a certificate of it.
Issuing location is not the factory
A WMI is assigned to a company, and it says where that company's identifier was issued, which is usually but not always where the vehicle was assembled. The entity names in vPIC show how loosely that can map to a plant. 5NP, which appears on both our Hyundai and Kia pages, is registered to Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center Inc — a technical center, not an assembly line. 4JG belongs to Mercedes-Benz of North America, Inc., and the 8B codes for Sprinter vans to Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC with Argentina as the country. Meanwhile Toyota's WMIs name individual plants, such as Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky for 4T1.
For where a particular car was built, position 11 is the better guide: it is the plant code, and our decoder reports the plant vPIC has on file for it. The model year is one position earlier, covered in model year codes.
Small manufacturers and the 9 in position three
A manufacturer that builds fewer than 1,000 vehicles of a given type a year is a low-volume manufacturer under 49 CFR 565.12. It does not get a three-character WMI of its own. Instead its identifier is six characters: positions 1–3 plus positions 12–14 of the VIN. The rule in 565.15 is blunt: “A ‘9’ in the third position always indicates the presence of a six-character manufacturer identifier.”
The vPIC data has examples even among big names, because the volume test applies per vehicle type. Volvo Group Canada's bus identifier is 2P9001 and its incomplete vehicle identifier is 2P9110: 2P9 in positions 1–3, then 001 or 110 in positions 12–14. For a small manufacturer, that leaves only positions 15–17 for the serial number.
This is also a common reason a decoder returns too little. If position 3 is a 9, the decoder needs positions 12–14 as well to know who made the vehicle, and a mistyped character there changes the manufacturer, not just the serial. See why a VIN won't decode for other causes.
Using the WMI in practice
- Sanity check a listing. If an advert says a car is a German-built BMW and the VIN starts with 5UX, vPIC registers that code to BMW Manufacturer Corporation in the United States. That is not necessarily a problem, but it is a question.
- Look up an unfamiliar code. Our makes index lists the codes for twenty makes with the date the data was retrieved. For anything else, decoding a full VIN returns the manufacturer vPIC has on file.
- Do not treat a WMI as proof of identity. It is three characters anyone can copy. Matching a VIN to the car in front of you is covered in VIN cloning and fraud.
Quick answers
What are the first 3 characters of a VIN?
The World Manufacturer Identifier, or WMI. It must uniquely identify the manufacturer and the type of vehicle, which is why large manufacturers hold many of them.
Who assigns WMI codes?
In the United States, SAE International coordinates the assignment under contract to NHTSA. Manufacturers send their requests to SAE, which checks for conflicts and confirms the assignment in writing, and NHTSA makes the assignments searchable through vPIC.
Does the first character of a VIN show the country where the car was built?
Not always. The first character broadly indicates the region where the identifier was issued, which is usually but not always where the vehicle was assembled. For where a particular car was built, position 11, the plant code, is the better guide.
What does a 9 in the third position of a VIN mean?
It means a six-character manufacturer identifier, used by manufacturers that build fewer than 1,000 vehicles of a given type a year. The identifier is positions 1 to 3 plus positions 12 to 14, which leaves only positions 15 to 17 for the serial number.
Sources
- 49 CFR 565.15, Content requirements
- 49 CFR 565.16, Reporting requirements (assignment of manufacturer identifiers)
- 49 CFR 565.12, Definitions
- NHTSA vPIC API, World Manufacturer Identifier records for the makes listed, retrieved October 2026