China’s northern municipality of Tianjin will start a bidding and lottery system for car license plates on Jan. 1, 2014, a move targeted at restricting the increase of cars, said government authorities on Tuesday. Sixty percent of the quota of 100,000 new car license plates will be issued via lottery, including 10,000 and 50,000 for fuel-efficient cars and conventional cars respectively, said a management plan approved by the Tianjin municipal government. The remaining 40,000 plates for conventional cars will be auctioned. The opening bid will be 10,000 yuan (about 1,652 U.S. dollars). A total of 88 percent of the plates will go to individual car owners, while non-individual applicants, such as companies, will compete for the other 12 percent. Government organizations and institutions in Tianjin will not be permitted to apply for new official cars, and all auction incomes from car plates will be […]