Quickborn, a town of 22,000 residents near Hamburg, has been denied its request to adopt "Q" as its official vehicle license plate abbreviation by the Federal Ministry of Transport. Despite a nationwide trend of cities seeking unique and retro license plates, and Quickborn's prominent inclusion in the alphabet ("Q wie Quickborn"), the ministry rejected the proposal. The ministry cited that the Pinneberg district, to which Quickborn belongs, has ample available license plate combinations (approximately seven million theoretical PI variations) with only about 200,000 vehicles currently registered. Furthermore, new abbreviations must apply to the entire district, not just a single municipality, and marketing or regional sentiment are not considered valid reasons for such changes in vehicle registration law.