Why, in Shanghai, A License Plate Is A Precious Metal explains how Shanghai auctions off car plates:
Last month, nearly 20,000 people bid for 6,233 available car plates. The number of plates available varies according to a formula that counts the number of scrapped cars removed from the roads and monthly car sales in the city.
They certainly have a different attitude toward cars:
“Can you imagine if everybody who wanted a car could buy one?” asks Sun Jian, deputy director of the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau.
Indeed, I can imagine that. Of course, he does have a point:
“By tomorrow, we’d be one big parking garage.”
Cars demand infrastructure.
Not everyone likes the auctions:
Such measures have met resistance, and not just from car buyers. Central government authorities, keen to develop China’s auto industry, oppose local efforts to curb individual car ownership. In 2000, they ordered cities across China to cancel 238 different types of auto-related fees. Assistant Commerce Minister Huang Hai recently berated Shanghai over its auction, saying it violates the rules and hurts car sales. “The car is a commodity that a modern society can’t be short of,” Mr. Huang said.
It’s in modern countries that we decry the car.