Following suit from Beijing, Guiyang caps private car sales to ease congestion.
The government has implemented a restriction in the number of cars sold in Guiyang, the capital of southwest China's Guizhou province. The city has a population of 3.17 million, with a fleet of 616,000 vehicles, including 330,000 privately owned cars which are causing severe congestion in downtown areas. Starting this month, potential buyers will have to enter in a lottery to win license plates and acquire new vehicles.
As yet, the government has not announced how many units will be sold per month, but the number in Beijing is being capped at 20,000. Many are speculating that sales restrictions are a major factor in the sluggish growth of the Chinese auto-market this year, which has only grown 5.8% so far compared to a staggering 38% in 2010.