THE number of cars registered in the city rose 13 percent last year to almost 2.5 million, according to a report by the Shanghai Urban-Rural Construction and Transportation Development Research Institute.

The number of cars that are restricted to suburban districts under license plate rules increased by 23 percent to 830,000 in the year, while those with non-local plates rose 24 percent to 1.2 million, it said.

The increase in the total number of cars was the fastest in the "past few years," it added.