Shandong city may implement policies restricting vehicle sales in the future

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai June 4) - At this weekend's Shandong Provincial People's Congress, Shandong Bureau of Environmental Protection Director Zhang Bo released a report on air pollution in the province, the Shandong Business Daily reported today. The report states that the next focus of the province's environmental protection work will be limiting the number of motor vehicles in cities. However the report does not go into detail concerning which cities are to be targeted.

Although environmental work done in Shandong has so far been very effective, pollution still remains a serious problem in the province. Mr. Zhang (pictured) points out that one of the most serious problems the province is facing comes from ever-increasing engine emissions. In 2013, there were 22.89 million motor vehicles on Shandong's roads, with 12.77 million of those being automobiles. That number has increased by six million over the past five years. With no city having released policies restricting automobile registrations, new car sales are at an all time high, leading to increased rates of traffic congestion and more serious air pollution.

Many analysts regard Mr. Zhang's proposition to "limit the number of motor vehicles" as another phrase to implement policies restricting the number of new vehicle registrations akin to Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and other cities. The ultimate goal of these policies is to slow down the rate with which the total number of automobiles increases in order to keep pollution and other problems in check. However there is no information in the report regarding which cities will be targeted, what timelines set and what sort of policies, whether they be lottery or auction systems, implemented.

The two cities analysts believe most likely to implement such a policy would be Jinan or Qingdao. However, last year officials from both cities' Committees of Transportation denied that work on any such policy was underway.