Cities' car plate policies

Shanghai

Local authorities in Shanghai introduced an auction system for vehicle license plates in 1994.

In December 2013, the government revised the system and announced that it would only be offering 100,000 license plates in 2014 for auction.

The number of vehicles on the road totaled 2.12 million in Shanghai by April 2013.

Beijing

The city government promulgated the Interim Regulations on Controlling the Number of Small Passenger Vehicles in Beijing in 2010.

By introducing a lottery system, it offered 240,000 license plates per year from 2011 to 2013.

In November 2013, it revised the plan to cut the quota to 150,000 per year starting in 2014 to keep the number of vehicles under 6 million by 2017.

Statistics show that there were 5.2 million units by April 2013.

Guiyang

Local authorities in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, promulgated its license plate regulation in 2011.

It offers 2,000 license plates per month through a lottery system.

Vehicles bearing such plates are allowed to drive throughout the city.

Residents are also allowed to get license plates not included in the lottery system but the vehicles are not allowed to drive within the first-ring road.

There were more than 1 million units in the city by the end of 2012.

Guangzhou

Car purchase has been restricted in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, since the government issued a trial plan to control the number of small and medium-sized passenger vehicles in 2012.

Local authorities offer a quota of 120,000 license plates each year.

Half are available for auction and half are provided free of charge through the lottery system.

An official plan was issued on July 1, 2013 and will remain valid until 2018.

There were 2.04 million vehicles in the city as of April 2013.

Shijiazhuang

Local authorities in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, issued the city's clean air action plan (2013-2017) on June 18, 2013.

According to the plan, each household shall not have more than two small passenger vehicles. And the city will introduce the last-digit rule to alleviate downtown traffic in 2014.

Statistics show there were 620,000 vehicles in Shijiazhuang by the end of September 2013.

Tianjin

At a press conference on Dec 15, 2013, the city government announced that it would introduce a lottery plus auction system starting on Dec 16.

It will offer 100,000 license plates each year.

Of them, 40,000 are available for auction and the rest are provided free of charge through the lottery system.

The government also said that it will introduce the last-digit rule on March 1.

There were 2.15 million vehicles in Tianjin as of April 2013.