Massive car cap takes effect
- Source: Global Times
- [08:08 December 24 2010]
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Shi paid the dealer 165,000 yuan ($24,833) for the car, tax, insurance and other administrative fees, but the price was 3,000 yuan higher than the dealer had promised her.
Rumors about anticipated limits fueled public concerns in recent weeks that it would become more expensive to get a new car next year, thus spurring a buying and license registration spree, even before the draft of the new measures was issued two weeks ago to solicit public opinion.
A total of 30,000 new vehicles were licensed in the past week alone, the Xinhua News Agency reported, citing statistics from the BMCT.
Sales of cars in Beijing reached 96,000 units last month, an increase of 24,000, or up 33 percent, over the same period last year and, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association.
Zhang Xue, a saleswoman at a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Chaoyang district offering cars between 300,000 and 500,000 yuan, said she was overwhelmed by the recent customer boom and had to work over-time, especially Thursday, with buyers rushing to make purchases before midnight.
"The visitors to our shop nearly quintupled over the past week. It's rare to see such a crazy scene in a high-profile auto sales market," she said, adding that the average daily sales volume in the past week topped 30, triple the previous record, with the record topping 40 units a day, even though the prices soared by between 5,000 and 100,000 yuan over the period.
In order to curb traffic congestion, Beijing has already issued some measures to reduce traffic.
All cars are barred from roads one day a week, based on their license plate numbers. But little relief has been seen on roads, as many residents have sought to evade the rule by buying a second vehicle.
Car ownership in the city surged to 4.7 million vehicles this year from 2.6 million in 2005.
Niu Fengrui, director of the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the new policy can tackle congestion in the short term but cannot remedy the fundamental problem.
"Public transportation should be given priority in the city's urban planning, and its services, including public transit and (bus and subway) stations, should be upgraded, making it easier for commuters to use public transportation," he said.
Huang Jingjing and Zhu Shanshan contributed to this story
