DRIVING FAMILY JUST A DREAM FOR THOSE AWAITING LICENSE PLATES

Beijing’s municipal lottery policy leads some hopefuls to apply instead for new energy vehicles, but others wait and hope

Yu Huapeng got a driver’s license six years ago, so he could take his wife and baby daughter on weekend road trips. He’s rarely used it, though, because after all this time he’s still waiting to strike it lucky in Beijing’s car plate lottery.

The capital introduced an annual quota on new car registrations in 2011 to ease traffic congestion and combat smog. For the past two years, the cap has been set at 90,000 licenses for conventional vehicles, available only by entering a monthly drawing, and 60,000 for new energy vehicles, which are distributed on a first-come, firstserved basis.

If people thought it was tough to get a plate before, they could find it even more difficult in 2018. The municipal government has slashed the quota for gas and diesel cars by more than half to 40,000.

“I’ve been taking part in the lottery for years,” said Yu, 36, deputy manager of an energy company. “It’s ironic that my driver’s license is about to expire this year, and I still can’t buy a car.”

Although other Chinese cities have adopted car registration quota systems, Beijing is the only one that distributes

license plates solely through a lottery. In Shanghai, car plates are auctioned in monthly sales — the average price in December was 92,848 yuan ($14,371) — while Shenzhen and Guangzhou have both lotteries and auctions.

Beijing’s first lottery in January 2011 had only 187,420 applicants. Last month, the number stood at more than 2.8 million, with another 117,678 still waiting for an NEV plate. Due to soaring demand, the chances of getting a license plate for a gas or diesel vehicle fell from 9.39 percent in 2011 to 0.11 percent in 2017.

Yu, who saw the trend and felt there is little hope to get a petrol plate, gave up his application in the lottery and joined the waiting list for an NEV license — although he will still need to wait two years.

He said it’s not a problem to take public transportation for work during weekdays, but it is frustrating when he wants to take the family to suburban resorts during the weekends.

“There are many car rental companies in Beijing, which is a choice for people who don’t own a car, when necessary,” he said. “However, because I don’t have driving experience, it’s risky for me to rent.”

An employee responsible for answering the Beijing city hotline said among various complaints, frustrated people who failed to win a petrol license in the lottery call the most.

“Some of them are furious, angry and rude,” said the employee, who was not authorized to talk to reporters and requested anonymity.

Rong Jun, spokesperson of the Beijing Traffic Commission, said on Thursday that the lottery policy is far from perfect, but it’s a “have-to” method under the certain circumstances — that Beijing’s population and car demand has surpassed the city’s capacity.

Beijing aims to keep the total number of cars on the road to under 6.3 million by 2020. By the end of 2017, the city had about 5.9 million cars. In 2011, when the lottery policy was launched, the number was around 4.98 million.

Rong said the government encourages people to use electric vehicles, which reduce emissions.

In 2017, there were 151,500 registered new-energy vehicles in Beijing, which ranks top among all Chinese cities.

Cutting traffic, pollution

Easing traffic congestion and other big city problems is one of the main reasons the capital chose to control the growth of new cars.

According to the municipal traffic commission, the annual growth of car numbers in Beijing has fallen from 44 percent in 2011 to 24 percent in 2017, which the government consid- ers an obvious effect of the lottery policy.

The capital’s traffic index in 2017 — a major gauge measuring traffic congestion — remained roughly the same as it was in 2016 at 5.6, standing for mild congestion. In 2010, the index was 6.1, showing a level between mild congestion and enormous congestion.

However, according to TomTom Traffic Index, an international information provider, Beijing ranks 10th on the list of the most congested cities in the world and drivers in Beijing spent 46 percent more travel time in 2017 as a result, up 8 percent from 2016.

Reducing emissions is another municipal concern. Vehicle exhaust is the top source of PM2.5 — the hazardous fine particles in Beijing’s air, based on an analysis from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau in 2014, the latest numbers available.

It accounted for 31.1 percent of PM2.5, higher than the amount discharged from coalconsumption and industrial production, it said.

“Beijing has taken effective controls and managed to cut the pollution from vehicle exhausts in the past five years, which fueled the improvement of the air quality,” Li Xiang, director of air quality management at the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, said on Jan 4 while releasing Beijing’s air-quality report for 2017.

Ways around

Yu, the driver awaiting a tag, said he has seen more clear days this winter in Beijing and understands the government faces a complex problem.

He said he would like to compromise on his car dream from a petrol vehicle to a new energy vehicle and has completed the documents.

Liu Jiangbo, 30, an administrative clerk with a Stateowned enterprise in Beijing, changed his application from petrol car to a new energy one in February 2017 after two-years of waiting. He received his tag several months later.

“When I noticed that the number of applicants for EV licenses have exceeded the number of NEV licenses given per year, I made up my mind to apply for an NEV,” he said. “Otherwise, it would be a much longer time to wait to own a car in Beijing.”

“Even though the new energy cars still have shortcomings, such as charging inconvenience and a low mile range, it’s more important to own a car to serve my daily life than the difference of the power of the car,” Liu said.

Some others tend to rent a car plate from people who own a plate but don’t have the need to use their car.

Liu Lin, a lawyer with the Beijing Shuangli Law Firm, said it is illegal to rent a plate.

Yu Dan, 32, a bank clerk, bought a car with his friend’s car license in 2016. “I’ve been driving this car for more than a year. Nothing bad happened,” he said. “It’s important that I have a car to use and my friend has kept his license. When he wants his license back, I just sell my car and give the plate back to him.”

According to the regulation, one has to purchase a car and get it registered within half a year after he or she wins a license in the lottery. The period was extended to one year beginning in 2018.

The lottery policy not only blocks individuals, but also companies and organizations.

Ta Foundation for Animal Protection, a nonprofit organization in Beijing, was unable to get a license for its van, which was turned to a mobile animal clinic.

Lu Ping, a project manager for the foundation, said they waited for a year to eventually get one through a special approval process from the authority, but it’s not the standard practice.

There is also a way to get a car license through buying a small-scale company that owns car plates, and there have been some successful cases. It is legal, but requires a lot of money.