The initial number of vehicles licence plates in Beijing is progressing
rapidly through the alphabet. Car plates numbers beginning with letter "L" are
expected to hit the streets next month to meet the fastest ever growth of car
owners in the capital.
According to Beijing News reports on Thursday, the number of cars sold in the
city since the beginning of this year has reached about 1,000 each day. A
vehicle management officer said licence plates issued have reached "KX", meaning
the number sequence beginning with letter "K" is nearing the end.
Plate numbers beginning with letter "L" are likely to debut a bit earlier
than expected as they may be distributed simultaneously with those beginning
with "K" for a time, until the others are used up, the report said.
The beginning number of vehicle licence plates has on average been up-dated
once a year over the past three years in Beijing. Whereas in the past, number
plates beginning with letter 'A' took over a decade to be used up.
The car license plate sequence in China is composed of letters of the
alphabet and Arabic numerals. The capacity of each beginning letter is for a
maximum of around 330,000 vehicle plates. Some letters like "O" and "I" are not
used because of their confusion with Arabic numbers.
