Search Vehicle by Plate
The Vehicle Registration API allows you to search for a vehicle by supplying its number plate. The request requires a number plate. This will return either a matching vehicle or a null.
Please note: The API assumes that the plate provided is for a passenger, van or light commercial vehicle. If other vehicle types are provided (motorcycles, trailers etc), we will use best endeavours to match the upstream vehicle description to a vehicle in our catalogue. This can result in some "fuzzy" matches however they will have a reduced confidence score (e.g. a Harley Davidson motorcycle matching to a Holden special vehicle).
It is critical that the confidence of the match is checked. MotorWeb will seek to always provide a match however there may be instances where a definitive match is not possible, or the vehicle is very rare and not in our database.
Possible confidence scores are:
standard
reduced
There are a variety of reasons why a reduced confidence score could be returned. In these scenarios we can find a match for the vehicle in our catalogue however some of the vehicle features may not be a perfect match. This is often because the vehicle is a grey import and further research is required to bring the vehicle into our catalogue.
An example is the 1999 Ferrari 355 F1 Spider Cabriolet (a UK import). We currently match this to the coupe version.
Other than the fuzzy search described above, a reduced confidence vehicle match may be sufficient for your needs and should be investigated.
unsupported
This score will be provided when the vehicle behind the provided plate or VIN is not within the scope of the vehicles we can process. Where we can identify a vehicle as a heavy commercial vehicle, a motorbike, a caravan or another vehicle type that is not passenger vehicles or light commercial, unsupported will be returned with an empty vehicle section.
failed
This will occur when a match cannot be found in our catalogue, even at the broadest level. For example if a plate for a boat trailer is provided e.g:
"upstream_vehicle": "1986 Homebuilt MISC Misc Boat Trailer"Then we will clearly be unable to find a match.
Any confidence score below standard should be investigated.
In all cases, and importantly if a matching vehicle is unable to be identified, we will return the upstream vehicle field allowing you to identify how the relevant road transport authority describes the vehicle. Depending on your use case you may wish to allow front-end users to manually classify the vehicle using the upstream vehicle as a guide to fill out a Facet-style search.
Features
The API has a series of optional features that augment the response payload. Please note that these features do incur an additional cost. An example of the API is as follows:
vsrr
This feature will return information on the vehicle's fuel economy, emissions, pollutants and safety as recorded by NZTA.
"vsrr": {
"fuel_economy": {
"star_rating": 6
},
"emissions": {
"co2": 0,
"star_rating": 6
},
"pollutants": {
"star_rating": 6,
"test_regime": "EXEMPT"
},
"safety": {
"driver": {
"test_regime": "Based on 2019 ANCAP rating for 19-23 models"
}
}
},odo_history
This feature will return information on the vehicle's mileage as recorded by NZTA and any other mielage information we may have access to.
"odo_history": [
{
"read_date": "2021-09-23",
"odometer": 7
},
{
"read_date": "2024-09-17",
"odometer": 7230
}
],odo_prediction
This feature utilises prior mileage history plus our custom algorithm to return a prediction of the vehicle's mileage as at today.
"odo_prediction": {
"prediction": 7269,
"days_since_read": 6,
"increase_since_read": 39,
"avg_yearly": 2420,
"avg_daily": 6.63,
"ag_market_avg": 47412
}A key constraint with this feature is that it relies on historical odometer readings which are generally sourced from NZTA as part of the WoF or CoF process. New vehicles do not need to get a new WoF within the first three years since registration, therefore it may not be possible to predict mileage for vehicles under three years old.
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