China encourages license plate quotas be to increased

Local governments in China will be encouraged to lift license plate quotas, amid a slew of measures to boost car consumption bruised by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the guidelines agreed at the State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Nov. 18.

Meanwhile, local governments of eligible regions are encouraged to give appropriate subsidies to the rural residents who purchase trucks with a load of 3.5 tons or below or passenger vehicles with emissions of 1.6 liters or below, and the residents who scrap automobiles under the China Ⅲ emission standards or below. A new round of activities for auto replacement and bringing automobiles to the countryside will be launched to boost car sales.

Several regions in China where the automobile purchase restriction has been implemented have gradually loosened the rules to stimulate the car shopping demands. Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Guiyang and Hainan province announced last year the removal or relaxation of car shopping restrictions.

To revive car sales hit by the coronavirus pandemic, a number of state-level government agencies, including the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce, jointly issued the implementation opinions, which note regions implementing car purchase restriction policy should be encouraged to increase as appropriate vehicle purchase quotas.

Shanghai and Tianjin have both increased their annual licence plate quotas, by 40,000 and 35,000 respectively, while Beijing has allocated an extra 20,000 plates for new-energy vehicles, which are merely available for car-free families.