Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

Despite a nearly 20-percent decline last month in automobiles registering license plates in Shanghai, mini vehicles reported a sharp increase in plate registrations, the Xinmin Evening News reported yesterday.
From January to September, 3,624 mini cars got plates in Shanghai, up 134 percent from the 1.547 a year ago, according to the latest data from Shanghai Information Center's auto industry development research department.
Researchers attributed the increase to the effective measures jointly taken by the 15 cities in Shanghai's neighboring Yangtze River Delta area to prevent Shanghainese from licensing their vehicles out of the city as a way to avoid high plate costs.
Also according to the SIC data, In September, 20 percent fewer new vehicles (13, 586) were registered in the city. Of those, 8, 537 were domestically produced, a figure that includes 2,566 mid- and upper-market vehicles.
MPVs and SUVs performed better than sedans, increasing by 18 percent and 36 percent respectively in the first nine months.
Imported vehicles also witnessed a slight slip. 
In September, 522 imported cars obtained local plates, down nearly 7 percent from a year ago.