Guangzhou starts plate lottery

The city of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, began its own version of a number plate lottery on Monday, in an effort to control spiraling traffic. This would leave every six applicants competing for each plate.

Guangzhou aims to come up with a better solution by combining Beijing's lottery mechanism and Shanghai's plate auction to tackle congestion and air pollution. Shanghai and Beijing were the first two Chinese mainland cities to launch such initiatives.

Local authorities would release 10,900 plates this month, of which 6,500 were already given out through lottery Monday, while the rest would be put up for auction on Tuesday, according to Guangzhou Daily.

Transportation experts said the Guangzhou measure bypasses the disadvantages afflicting Beijing and Shanghai.

"Though Beijing's monthly lottery gives residents a seemingly equal chance to obtain the plates for free, the success rate is extremely low," Li Keping from the Shanghai-based Tongji University told the Global Times.

Applicants in the capital last month had a less-than-2-percent chance to obtain a plate, the lowest odds since the lottery scheme was launched in January 2011, said the Beijing car registration lottery office.

However, Guangzhou's policy gives applicants a higher success rate of about 18.6 percent. In total, 58,400 people applied for a quota of around 10,000 plates issued monthly, working out to more or less 1 in 6 odds.　

Li said Beijing is also plagued with other problems for its car plate lottery.

"There are already grey markets in Beijing where people who do not need plates join the lottery to turn a profit by reselling them to others. This makes it so those who really need them find it nearly impossible to get one," Li said.

According to chinanews.com, new car plates in Shanghai sold for an average price of 62,559 yuan ($9,841) in August, 7.4 percent up from July.

Zhu Tao, another transportation expert from the Beijing University of Technology, said the plate auction in Shanghai had seen prices skyrocket for ordinary families, and had generated questions as to where the auction revenues went and how they were being spent.

"It will be difficult for the auction prices in Guangzhou to surpass those in Shanghai because applicants in Guangzhou are actually divided into two groups," Zhu added.

"Those who are in real need to secure a plate and who can spend more will go for the auction, while those who are not in such a rush can get one for free in the lottery," he said.

An employee from Guangzhou Yongjia, a car dealer, told the Global Times that many customers had been asking questions about how to get number plates.

"Those who want to buy expensive cars with higher emissions will usually apply for auctions, while those who want smaller cars often try their luck in the lottery," she said.