Actually, I've already got a plate so take this with a large lump of salt. But to me 80k RMB seems about right for the privilege of piloting a couple tons of steel and glass around a crowded city, especially if the plate is a tradeable, transferable asset. Maybe too low. Compare Shanghai's streets with any other city in China, and you'll appreciate the huge positive impact of the current system.

When a vice mayor starts going "populist" and saying, without any empirical justification, that plate prices are too high, you know we are in trouble. Just look at Beijing, where a policy of getting everyone in a car held sway for more than a decade. They finally panicked in the past 18 months but it's too little, too late. Although plates are getting more and more expensive in Beijing, that's a city that long ago lost control and unless they start charging very heavy annual fees Beijing will never bring its mind-numbing, productivity-sapping traffic loads down to the levels we currently enjoy in Shanghai.

Administrative means to lower prices, or at least curb speculation and a price bubble? Yeah, well, that's what the government has been trying with the housing market. And what's the result? Prices just keep on soaring. Couples are even divorcing to game the system and own more than one flat.

Market controls probably allocate resources best, but not everyone is going to be happy with the results.

cheers