Overview
- .car is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) intended for content related to cars and the automotive industry.
- The term .car also appears as a filename extension for Content Addressable aRchives, per disambiguation notes.
History
- The string .car was applied for under ICANN's New gTLD Program. Excerpts from the application describe a mission to provide a dedicated domain space for automotive-related content.
- According to ICANN-related summaries, the string was delegated to the DNS root zone on September 9, 2015.
- Source notes differ on registry attribution: one source identifies Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.) as the registry (priority 884), while another source lists Uniregistry in association with .car.
Usage and Audience
- Intended audience: businesses and individuals offering or publishing content related to cars and the automobile industry.
- Typical use cases described in the application include:
- Sale, purchase and rental of cars
- Financing and insurance for vehicles
- Servicing, repair and vehicle management
- Automobile industry information, new product development and trends (e.g., alternative fuels)
- The registry indicated the gTLD would be broadly useful given its wide variety of uses and would be kept open to encourage adoption.
Registration Rules
- The application states there will be no restrictions on second-level registrations in .car; domain names will be available to the general public.
- Registry access: Registry services, including the shared registration system, were to be made available to all ICANN-accredited registrars.
- Rights protection: the registry indicated a commitment to implementing strong, integrated intellectual property rights protection mechanisms and to offer a suite of rights-protection measures building on ICANN-required policies.
SEO and Brand Impact
- The registry positioned .car as a targeted namespace that signals automotive-related content, which can help organize related sites and signal content intent to users.
- The registry emphasized implementing rights protection measures and framed its approach as part of broader goals around responsible registry stewardship and fostering trust and development online.
Notable Cases or Examples
- There was contention and dispute activity involving .car and related strings (.cars):
- In October 2013 a panelist ruling related to a String Confusion Objection brought by Google against DERCars favored Google, creating contention between .car and .cars applicants.
- Subsequent ICANN action in February 2014 granted certain applicants the right to appeal inconsistent objection rulings; multiple parties (including Donuts and Uniregistry) had applied for related strings, producing contention among applicants.
Operator
XYZ.COM LLC
Whois
% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object
domain: CAR
organisation: XYZ.COM LLC
address: 4425 Spring Mountain Rd., Suite 2
address: Las Vegas NV 89102
address: United States of America (the)
contact: administrative
name: General Counsel
organisation: XYZ.COM LLC
address: 4425 Spring Mountain Rd., Suite 2
address: Las Vegas NV 89102
address: United States of America (the)
phone: +1 702 757 6555
e-mail: hello@xyz.com
contact: technical
name: CTO
organisation: CentralNic
address: Saddlers House, 4th Floor
address: 44 Gutter Lane
address: London EC2V 6BR
address: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)
phone: +44 20 33 88 0600
fax-no: +44 20 33 88 0601
e-mail: tld.ops@centralnic.com
nserver: A.NIC.CAR 194.169.218.130 2001:67c:13cc:0:0:0:1:130
nserver: B.NIC.CAR 185.24.64.130 2a04:2b00:13cc:0:0:0:1:130
nserver: C.NIC.CAR 212.18.248.130 2a04:2b00:13ee:0:0:0:0:130
nserver: D.NIC.CAR 212.18.249.130 2a04:2b00:13ff:0:0:0:0:130
ds-rdata: 35548 13 2 1d24872ac7b4db0623a7cb937fe46d53734f43301c4964136bb2bbbb8f5faeb7
whois: whois.nic.car
status: ACTIVE
remarks: Registration information: http://www.nic.car
created: 2015-08-26
changed: 2025-08-12
source: IANA
Registrars
