China’s Cabinet, the State Council, is considering canceling car ownership quotas nationally as it promotes new-energy vehicles amid an economic slowdown.

According to a guideline published Tuesday, the State Council has proposed 20 measures to “promote commercial prosperity” and “boost domestic consumption,” including the removal of car ownership quotas after automobile sales reportedly fell for 13 consecutive months. The statement said locations with restrictions on automobile purchases should explore measures to gradually relax or cancel such limitations, and should support purchases of new-energy vehicles and secondhand cars.

Several Chinese megacities — including Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin — have introduced an annual quota on new license plates in the past decade to help reduce traffic congestion and air pollution. In Beijing, residents are required to obtain a license plate through a lottery system — the odds of winning it were 1 in 2,031 last year — before purchasing a car. In late May, the southern cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen announced plans to increase their license plate quotas by at least 42% by 2020, a move that is expected to be rolled out in other cities in the near future. (Image: VCG)