We know: China is not only the largest car market globally, but it is also the country where more electrical cars are sold in the world. Out of 27.5 million passenger vehicles marketed in 2024, 12.8 million were “Nev” (New Energy Vehicle), a category that includes purely electric cars and plug-in hybrids, that is, equipped with large batteries and internal combustion engines . A segment that continues to grow at accelerated rhythms: Nev deliveries scored a 39.7 percent increase last year compared to 2023.
So good these Chinese who run to the dealership to buy a thorn car, congratulations! They seem to demonstrate attention to the environment that Italian motorists dream of. But in reality it is not quite like this: living in a state capable of introducing king not very popular measures without excessively fear the reaction of citizens, many Chinese motorists are in fact obliged to buy electrified vehicles, in particular the inhabitants of the gigantic metropolis of the Asian country . In some cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen obtaining a plaque for a private car in fact involves participation in a lottery or a rod, systems introduced to combat traffic and reduce pollution. In China, the automotive plaque has an important value, it is associated with the person that the OT holds and not to the car as in Italy, and the owner can keep it all his life and reuse it for every replacement of the car. But in large cities conquering a plaque for a petrol vehicle has become very expensive and extremely difficult, pushing many Chinese to use public transport or car sharing. Or to convert to electric mobility, given that for ecological vehicles many metropolises offer special plates (often green) with different rules to encourage their use.
Let’s take the case of Shanghai, Megalopoli with 24 million inhabitants: Here every month the Shanghai Traffic, Transportation & Port Management Bureau auctioning about nine thousand petrol car plates and participants must offer a sum of money to win them. The starting price is set by the organization, but often rises quickly due to the strong demand. In recent years, the cost has been around 10-15 thousand euros and in some cases it has broken through these figures even exceeding the value of a new car. And of course many citizens protest because the auction system makes the purchase of a petrol car accessible only to the wealthiest. On the contrary, the plates for electric cars in Shanghai are free and are not subject to the system of auctions to which the petrol ones are subjected. To obtain his green license plate, the citizen must buy a car that falls into the Nev category, then submit a application to the competent offices and finally, after obtaining the license plate, he can register the car and start driving.
In Beijing, however, a system of monthly struggles is in force: In 2024 the authorities decided to offer 100 thousand plates, of which 80 thousand intended for electric vehicles and 20 thousand for petrol ones. The latter are drawn through “revolves” in which hundreds of thousands of people participate: the chances of obtaining one are very low and most of the inhabitants of Beijing must keep their luck several times, sometimes for years, before obtaining one plate. Electric cars, on the other hand, are not subject to the lottery and their owners can receive a plaque much more easily. Other cities combine both methods, as scoring a part of the plates via lottery and another via auction. Not only that. To obtain a plaque, non -local residents (for example, people from other provinces) must meet additional requirements, such as having stable work and paying taxes in the city for a certain number of years. In Beijing, those who come from other provinces with their own petrol car can only circulate for a certain number of days. In addition to the rods and lotteries, China has introduced other measures to encourage the purchase of ecological cars. In some metropolises such as Beijing battery cars can circulate in areas or in prohibited periods for petrol vehicles. In addition, electric car buyers can enjoy subsidies, tax breaks and reduced registration fees. In some cities, the Green cars benefit from free parking spaces, exemptions from tolls and reduced insurance rates.
The result is the boom of electric cars, especially the plug-in hybrid ones. But the hard policy of the Chinese metropolis in favor of electric cars also caused a growing dissatisfaction of some groups of citizens: protests, campaigns on social media, legal causes have been undertaken in recent years in Canton, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen against the Auction and lotter system. In the sight not only the costs and the difficulty in obtaining the plaque, but also the alleged ineffectiveness regarding the actual reduction of pollution (doubts that also emerge in Italy when the circulation is blocked on the anti -smog days). In 2022 several motorists expressed their frustration for long waiting times for a plaque, even more than Cin que years, and asked the government to find a faster and more efficient solution. In 2023 in Hangzhou the residents protested against the introduction of new restrictions on the number of cars that can circulate in the city, claiming that these measures would have had a negative impact on their daily life. The authorities have often reacted to disputes with repressive and online censorship. However, protests also led to some corrections, such as the increase in the number of available plates or the introduction of more equipped criteria for the assignment. But the system does not change: here we are in China, not in Italy.
