Prices for number plates continue to skyrocket in China's majof cities as demand for private cars grows.
One way of solving the licence plate problem! Image: Su-May |
At the city’s monthly license plate auction, the average bid for a private plate reached a whopping CNY 64,367 ($10,175 CNY 2,700 ($425) higher than the April average. In an effort to curb pollution and ease congestion, many Chinese cities restrict the number of available plates to limit the number of cars on the road.
Last September, OATS reported Beijing’s license plate lottery, when 653,113 applicants competed for a paltry 17,600 plates – slim odds at one in seventeen. Beijing claims the restrictive policies have helped improve air quality, although many in the automotive industry question whether or not the restrictions are stunting the city’s economic growth.
Put into perspective, each license plate was nearly $2,000 more than the nation’s GDP per capita, which is around $8,500 pa, and the cumulative worth of these license plates was around CNY 1.3 billion ($209 million). Small wonder the luxury car market continues to thrive in a city where a license plate is only marginally cheaper than a domestically produced car.
Fortunately for would-be car owners, it seems the price summit may have been reached, at least in the short-term, as June plate prices dropped for the first time in months to CNY 58,227 ($9,161).