Shenzhen became the eighth city in China to restrict vehicle purchases yesterday by putting a cap on local registration to ease the problem of traffic jam and air pollution.
For the next five years, the city in south China's Guangdong Province will set an annual quota of 100,000 for local car plates, distributing them equally by lucky draws and auctions. Among them, 80 percent will be for traditional internal combustion-engine cars and 20 percent for new energy cars.
The annual quota will be adjusted according to the traffic condition, air quality, and vehicle demand, the local government said yesterday.
The new policy, which came into effect yesterday itself, took many by surprise despite earlier proclamations by the authorities that they would not "spring a surprise" after similar restrictions were introduced in another southern city, Guangzhou, in 2012.
Last year, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers named eight cities that are likely to introduce vehicle purchase restrictions. So far, cities to have imposed similar restrictions are Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guiyang in Guizhou Province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, and Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province.
Those likely to follow suit are Qingdao in Shandong Province, Wuhan in Hubei Province, Chengdu in Sichuan Province, and the southwestern municipal city of Chongqing.
This month, the most expensive car plates in China were auctioned off in Shanghai with the lowest winning bid starting from 73,600 yuan. The lowest lottery winning rate was in Beijing, where each car plate was up for grab among more than 150 people.
The restrictions on vehicles has drawn criticisms with many suggesting that local governments were using them as means to deal with pressing environmental issues at the expense of people's rights to own private cars.
Earlier this month, the state-backed Xinhua News Agency criticized the administrative policy as "backward" and slammed it as going back to "the planned economy era."
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