A BMW 850ci, seen by reader Scott in Shanghai in 2016. The pretty coupe was in a great shape and painted in white, a color rarely seen on the 8-Series. It also has an equally rare black Shanghai 沪A·05682 license plate.
Black license plates were issued to foreign owned companies from the 1980’s to the mid 00’s. These companies could buy a car locally or import one. There were no limits on the number of cars, or on price, or engine type. The numbering started at A·00001, and then up. So the lower the number the older the car. The rule was sometimes abused a little bit to import otherwise unavailable high-end cars into China, which may have been the case with this BMW. These cars were bought by a foreign company, registered, and then sold on to a private Chinese buyer. In those days, the license plate went with the car so it would keep the black plate.
The first generation BMW 8-Series (E31) was produced from 1990 until 1999.The 850Ci debuted in 1994, it was the successor of the 850i. Biggest change was a new 5.4 liter V12 engine, up 0.4 liters compared to the engine in the 850i. Power was up too; to 322 hp and 490 Nm.
The BMW 8-Series was not officially sold in China but there was some semi-official input, where Chinese dealers were able to order cars one a one-by-one basis. Earlier on I met a BMW 850i that likely came into China via that way. Still, the first generation 8-Series is a very rare car in China and in my many years in the country I have only seen a few. More BMW 8 later on!