Bidders in Shanghai's car license auctions declining

Thousands of Shanghai residents have withdrawn from the battle for hard-to-get Shanghai car license plates in each of the past 10 months, signaling that the market for new energy vehicles may be maturing, according to industry insiders.

In the March monthly plate auction for private cars, the number of participants dropped by more than 13,000 from February to 150,000. In June, there were 220,000 participants.

Meanwhile, the number of NEVs in the city rose to nearly 240,000 - nearly 10 percent of private vehicles in the city - according to the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission. In 2015, there were only about 35,000.