Focus

Shanghai drivers face tougher road in registering their wheels than Beijingers

By Wu Yiyao (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-24 07:50

A man chooses a combination for his car plate at a vehicle registration office in Beijing. Lu Jiazuo / For China Daily

Beijingers frustrated with the cost and hassle of driving in the capital can take solace in knowing that Shanghai drivers have it even worse.

A license plate for a private car in Shanghai costs 100 times as much as one in Beijing, judging by a March 20 auction in Shanghai, in which as many as 17,704 bidders competed for 8,000 license plates. The average price for a license plate at the auction was 39,882 yuan ($5,839), 1,262 yuan more than during February's auction and the highest such average price in the last 27 months. The minimum bid for a plate was 39,600 yuan, 1,300 yuan more than last month.

Shanghai started monthly auctions of license plates in 2002 to slow the increase of privately owned cars. Buyers need to obtain a license plate through bidding at least one year before a new car is purchased. License plates have cost at least 20,000 yuan since 2007, according the auction authorities.

There are often three or four times as many bidders as license plates at the auction, meaning most go home empty -handed. Some car owners choose to buy secondhand license plates, which usually cost at least 40,000 yuan. Others buy plates from neighboring provinces, such as Zhejiang and Jiangsu.

But prices for license plates from these surrounding areas are also surging because of strong demand from Shanghai motorists. Cars with such plates are allowed in Shanghai after paying a fee, but face restrictions, such as being barred from overpasses or tunnels under the Huangpu River during rush hour.

Car owners who renew their plates in Shanghai are allowed to choose their plate number (which must be two numbers, then a letter of the alphabet, followed by two more numbers). Combinations with "lucky numbers" such as six and eight go fast, so many car owners in Shanghai simply take whatever number the authorities assign.