On March 23, 2013, the cost of a car license plate at an auction hit a record high in Shanghai. The license plate hit a whooping 90,000 yuan, despite the efforts by the municipal government to regulate the market.
According to the Shanghai government, the price of a secondhand car plate must not exceed the auction price of a new car plate. The announcement was made nine days before the car plate auction for March. The government blamed the rising price of second hand plates for causing a price increase in the new ones.
Putting in the auction clause was one of the new measures being used to fight speculations and curb the surging price of the plates. The result on Saturday had surprised the bidders as well as the car dealers, as the average successful bid had gone up to 91,898 yuan. This is the ninth consecutive month the plates have hit a record high.
After winning the plate, a Shanghai resident said that the government’s effort to reduce the prices was laughable. The resident said that the upgraded system was not good as it required them to put in verification codes whenever they wanted to bid. This delayed proceedings and caused confusion.
