Beijing will no longer directly issue license plates for new energy cars, as a lottery system started today.
New energy vehicles, which refer to electric cars in this sense, once again joined the lottery pool, with the odds of winning at 25 to 22.
The government started a pilot program of allocating license plates for new energy cars by lottery last year, which was suspended due to too few applicants to match the allocated plates.
As the odds of winning a license plate for petrol-driven vehicles dropped down continuously, which comes to 190 to 1 in June, potential car buyers turn their eyes to the electric ones. Other preferential policies including tax exemption and no traffic restriction also help drive up demand for new energy vehicles.
6,454 qualified applicants will vie for 5,697 plates this month.
“I’ve been losing in the license plate lotteries for years, but my family is in urgent need of a car. So I turn to the new energy ones now because I worry its odds will also decrease, and more importantly, the charging poles in the city are under construction,” an applicant said.
The lottery started at 10 am today, and applicants can inquire about the results an hour later by telephone, or on the official website or APP.