World manufacturer identifier (WMI) codes

The first three characters of a VIN are the world manufacturer identifier (WMI). Together they identify the manufacturer and, through the codes it holds, the type of vehicle.

How WMIs are assigned

NHTSA has contracted SAE International to coordinate the assignment of manufacturer identifiers to manufacturers in the United States. A large manufacturer typically holds many WMIs — separate codes for passenger cars, multipurpose vehicles and trucks, and for different countries or companies of manufacture. A WMI whose third character is 9 belongs to a manufacturer producing fewer than 1,000 vehicles a year; positions 12–14 of its VINs complete the identifier.

WMI codes of major manufacturers

The table lists the three-character WMIs that NHTSA's vPIC database returns for the manufacturers behind the makes covered on this site, limited to passenger cars, multipurpose passenger vehicles (SUVs and vans) and trucks. Names and countries are shown as vPIC lists them; the country is vPIC's attribute for that code. It is not a complete world list.

Look up any other code with the VIN decoder, which asks vPIC for the full decode of a complete VIN.