This license plate sells for $3.2 million in Hong Kong. What's so special

A personalized license plate has been sold at $3.2 million at an auction in Hong Kong, which became the second-highest bid on record in the city. Interestingly, eye-catching and bewildering car number plates are a common sight in the South East Asian city. Bloomberg reports that the bid was for a license plate with the letter ‘R’, and it came at a Lunar New Year auction organized by the Hong Kong Transport Department.

Interestingly, this is not the first time such a high-value-yielding auction has been organized by the Hong Kong Transport Department. Previously too, a license plate was sold at a record HK$26 million in 2021, when the special number plate contained the letter W. This time, the fresh auction fetched a little lower than that, though.

Honk Kong Transport Department has a personalized car plate auctioning system, which was introduced in 2006. Since then, there have been more than 160 auctions, and more than 40,000 special registration plates have been issued to the bidders. The system claims to have brought the Hong Kong government more than HK$600 million in revenue so far, claims the report.

The report further states that vehicle owners can register to apply for their license plate of choice, starting a process that sometimes lasts as long as 18 months before the plate goes to an auction. The applicants have to pay HK$5,000 as a deposit, and if there are no other bidders, then that plate will be theirs for the deposited amount.

The report cited a government statement claiming that the winning bid for R lettered number plate was 5,100 times the reserve price and represented more than 80 per cent of the total raised at the auction.