Shanghai License Plates At Record High

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Allegedly, China’s enthusiasm for new cars has waned. Don’t tell that to a Shanghainese. In Shanghai, exuberant carbuying has been dampened by limiting the amount of license plates, which are auctioned off. In March, prices of new license plates hit a record high. The average bid for a license plate was 58,625 yuan (9,380 U.S. dollars), Xinhua reports.

Many attempts have been made to end the limitations in Shanghai and in Beijing, where license plates are assigned by a lottery. Rao Da, Secretary-General of the China Passenger Vehicle Association CPVA, appealed to patriotic feelings by saying that Chinese domestic brands are almost entirely pushed out of the Shanghainese market. “High priced license plates will affect domestic brands sales in the Shanghai market, and will eventually push them out of the city,” Da said according to Chinacartimes. True. It makes little sense to stick a $10,000 plate on a QQ which costs less than half of that.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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 4 comments
  • Tparkit Tparkit on Mar 19, 2012

    Smells like a racket. Making plates artificially scarce is a nice setup for kickbacks to get one, or to get one with a "lucky" number.

    • See 1 previous
    • Tparkit Tparkit on Mar 19, 2012

      @-Cole- Do you know that China has beed described as the world's most corrupt nation? Graft is institutionalized, and almost nothing there is what it appears to be.

  • Herm Herm on Mar 19, 2012

    I believe an electric car gets an exception from those plate restrictions.

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