nationwide and chronological. The first car registered in France under the SIV received a AA-001-AA registration plate, the second one AA-002-AA, the third AA-003-AA. The system will be exhausted when ZZ-999-ZZ is reached, which is scheduled to occur after 80 years of use. The numbering system goes as follows: AA-001-AA to AA-999-AA (numbers evolve first); AA-001-AB to AA-999-AZ (then the last letter on the right); AA-001-BA to AA-999-ZZ (then the first letter on the right); AB-001-AA to AZ-999-ZZ (then the last letter on the left); BA-001-AA to ZZ-999-ZZ (then the first letter on the left). The SIV format provides , or 277,977,744, different combinations. This figure excludes three letters that are not used: I, O and U, as they can be confused with 1, 0 and V, respectively. It also excludes the SS combination because it is reminiscent of the Nazi organisation and WW in the first group of letters as it indicates a temporary plate. Other combinations of letters that were avoided in the previous system because they sounded vulgar to French speakers, such as KK, PD, PQ, QQ, and WC, were included in the SIV. The SIV system does not provide special plates for the government, army, police or any other organisation that had such plates under the previous system. Their vehicles display regular registration plates. The only exception concern temporary plates, which start with WW, and demonstration cars at car dealers, whose plates start with W. Regional codes As it is nationwide, the SIV system does not use geographical codes as did the previous system. At first, it was not planned to display the départments' codes on the new plates. Because of that, the new format encountered strong opposition. Parliamentarians from both the majority and opposition lobbied at the National Assembly to keep what they saw as a part of national identity. In 2008, several months before the SIV system was implemented, the Minister of the Interior acknowledged the attachment French people had to their départements and decided to add a blue band on the right to display geographical codes. As it is not used for administrative purposes, car owners can choose the code of the they want, no matter where they reside. The code must be displayed together with the symbol of the corresponding region. It is forbidden to display the symbol of a region the chosen does not belong to. The code may be changed