Lucky Beijing License Plate Winners To Be Punished Severely

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Beijingers who are lucky enough to win the license plate lottery may be punished severely – if they don’t buy a car. In the beginning of the year, China’s capital instated a rule by which new car owners must enter a lottery for a license plate. Only 17,600 plates are available per month. In the latest draw, some 530,000 people did compete for the 17,600 plates. Only one out of 30 applicants could win. And what are the lucky winners doing? Most of them do nothing. In April, only 3,700 exercised their hard-won right and bought a car. At least that’s up from 2,000 in January. Now, the city is thinking about meting out harsh punishment.

At bjhjyd.gov.cn, the website where the carless Beijinger applies for a lottery ticket to ride, the city solicits public opinion about possible penalties for people who win, but don’t buy. (If you go to the site, many security services will warn you that it contains spyware – just take my word for it. It’s in Chinese anyway.)

One option is to keep the current policy. Currently, if the right is not used within six months, it is forfeited, but the prospective car owner can re-apply. Good luck. Another choice is to bar them from applying for a year. The third option is no lucky draw for two years.

Doing away with the lottery is not on the menu. Neither is transferring the right, which would create a frenzy of a market.

According to China Daily, “Beijing’s auto market has stagnated since car restriction regulations took effect.” Stagnated? Collapsed would be the appropriate word. A total of 71,900 cars were sold in the first four months of this year in the city, a 62 percent drop compared with the same period last year.

Last year, between 700,000 and 890,000 cars changed hands in Beijing, nobody knows for sure. Beijing’s population is 19.6 million. As of April, there were 4.9 million registered vehicles in the capital.

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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  • GS650G GS650G on Jun 06, 2011

    It sounds like the lottery is no longer needed. market forces took care of the car buying problem. But there are limits to the PLA acceptance of capitalism. After all, the right to own a car has GOT to be regulated and once granted it's insulting not to exercise it. Especially when new car sales are tanking and that hurts the government in other subtle ways.

    • See 2 previous
    • Wsn Wsn on Jun 06, 2011

      @cole Depending on who you ask. If you are mid-aged, married, and have a nice apartment close to a subway station, you really don't need a car there. But if you are a single man that can afford a car, any car, it will greatly help you get laid. Something cute like TT or Z4 can let you literally pick whoever you want to f*ck tonight. P.S. The above statement holds true for Chinese men. If you are an OK looking Caucasian man, you don't even need that TT.

  • TonyJZX TonyJZX on Jun 06, 2011

    I find it ironic that in the west where cars have never been cheaper to buy that people just don't want car ownership any more... rising cost of ownership and oppressive govt. is putting paid to that and kids seem to want iphones don't they? this has been a popular topic on TTAC in the past... phones. vs cars getting kids to buy cars etc. And yet there is that pull in the old kingdom...

    • Wsn Wsn on Jun 06, 2011

      Please see my previous comment. Car ownership is attractive in China, because not everyone can afford it (thus causing the guy with a car to get more girls than the guy who doesn't). In the US, a car simply doesn't have that appeal any more. Just look at Weiner or Schwarzenegger. Man, their Chinese counterparts must pity them a lot.

  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
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