Good evening to car friends, everyone knows that the first step in buying a car is to choose a license plate number for your car, but some numbers are too special to be obtained through auction. On April 8, a license plate with the number "P7" in Dubai sold for 55 million dirhams (about 103 million yuan), becoming the world's most expensive license plate certified by Guinness World Records. This quickly sparked discussion among netizens, but what attracted more attention than this license plate was the identity of the buyer.
From @Zhongxin Video
103 million yuan to auction the world's most expensive license plate
According to reports, the auction, called "Most Prestigious Number", was held at Four Seasons Resort Dubai in Jumel Beach in Dubai on the same day, and the proceeds from the auction will be donated to the "1 Billion Meals" campaign to provide food to vulnerable groups. In Dubai, the fewer the number of license plates, the more prestigious, and license plates with only one number such as "P7" are very rare and very sought-after. In addition to the "P7", several license plates were auctioned together on the same day, the license plate AA19 was sold for 4.9 million dirhams (about 9.18 million yuan), and the O71 was sold for 2.1 million dirhams (about 3.94 million yuan).
But what interests netizens more than the world's most expensive license plate is the identity of the buyer. It is reported that the buyer is Russian Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram APP, a cross-platform instant messaging software. Telegram is currently headquartered in Dubai, and Pavel Durov is currently a citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates, with a net worth of $15.1 billion (103.912 billion yuan), and is considered the richest man in the UAE. So this license plate worth 103 million yuan is a sprinkle for him.
The UAE is rich in sky-high license plates
Before this "P7" license plate, the world's most expensive license plate certified by Guinness World Records was the "1" license plate in Abu Dhabi, which was auctioned by UAE businessman Saeed AI Khouri for 52.2 million dirhams (about 97.78 million yuan) in February 2008. In addition to this "1" license plate, Saeed AI Khouri and his relatives also have "5" license plates purchased for 25.2 million dirhams (about 47.2 million yuan) and "7" license plates purchased for 11.7 million dirhams (about 21.92 million yuan).
For the past decade, the Dubai Transport Authority has been auctioning off special license plates, and the prices are outrageous every time. In May 2021, at a license plate auction in Dubai, a "AA9" license plate sold for a sky-high price of 38 million dirhams (about 63.31 million yuan).
In 2016, Dubai-based Indian businessman Balwinder Sahni spent 33 million dirhams (about 61.81 million yuan) to photograph Dubai's "D5" license plate, which he allegedly photographed because 9 is his lucky number, and the letter D is exactly the fourth letter of the alphabet, plus the number 5 is exactly equal to 9.
In addition to the United Arab Emirates, other countries and regions have also had sky-high license plates. In November 2021, a license plate with the number "MM" in the United States was sold for 5,888 Ether, which was worth about $4,600 at the time, so the price of this "MM" license plate was pulled up to $27 million (about 186 million yuan). It is claimed that there are only 35 license plates with two repeated characters like this in California.
In Hong Kong, a "W" license plate was sold for 26 million Hong Kong dollars (about 22.79 million yuan) in 2021, while the starting price of this license plate was only 5 million Hong Kong dollars (about 4.38 million yuan). Prior to this, the most expensive license plate in Hong Kong was the "28" sold in 2016, with a transaction price of 18.1 million Hong Kong dollars (about 15.86 million yuan), hanging on the Rolls-Royce Phantom.
The most famous in the UK is naturally the "F1" license plate, the founder of the tuning factory Kahn Design Afzal Kahn spent 440,000 pounds (about 3.74 million yuan) to buy this "F1" special license plate in 2008, and has been hung on luxury cars such as Mercedes-Benz SLR and Bugatti Veyron. In Chinese mainland, the most expensive license plate on record is said to be Guangdong V99999, which sold for 3.2 million yuan in 2016, more than six times higher than the starting price.
The comments from netizens are wonderful
Knowing that the person who photographed the "P7" license plate was a Russian, some netizens ridiculed that "the money has not been confiscated by the United States." And the netizen wonder: "Is the car with the license plate?" Some netizens commented that "boring and boring activities to show off wealth" and "for the rich, it is just pocket money".
Write at the end
A small license plate can sell for hundreds of millions, and it is really poverty that limits my imagination. I was already surprised when I saw the price of the Shanghai A motorcycle license plate before, but I didn't expect it to be more exciting. I don't know what do you think of these sky-high license plates? Will you spend hundreds of thousands, millions to buy your favorite license plates?
Note: Some of the materials in this article come from the Internet
What do you think of these sky-high license plates?