BEIJING - One out of 77 applicants were awarded car registration plates in the monthly vehicle plate lottery in Beijing on Tuesday, a new low for the competition.

The 18,511 winners were drawn from February's 1.42 million applicants. In January, 1.4 million people competed for 18,653 plates, according to the municipal transport commission.

Beijing introduced the lottery scheme in January 2011 to reduce car ownership and traffic congestion. One out of 10.6 received a plate after the first draw on January 26, 2011.

The number of applicants rose from 187,420 in January 2011 to 1.42 million in February this year.

The number of cars in Beijing grew from 1 million in 1997 to 5.2 million in 2012, according to Beijing municipal statistics bureau data.