COE prices for Category A cars fall by S$10,000 in latest bidding exercise

SINGAPORE: Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums closed lower across most categories in the latest bidding exercise on Wednesday (Nov 20), with prices for Category A cars falling by 10 per cent.

Premiums for Category A cars, or those 1,600cc and below with horsepower not exceeding 130bhp, closed at S$89,889 (US$67,000), down from S$99,889 in the last exercise.

Premiums for larger and more powerful cars in Category B fell to S$105,081 from S$108,001.

COEs for commercial vehicles, which include goods vehicles and buses, rose to S$69,000 from S$68,340 in the previous bidding exercise.

Motorcycle premiums closed at S$8,669, down from S$9,089 in the last exercise.

Open category COEs, which can be used for any vehicle type but end up being used mainly for large cars, fell to S$107,501 from S$109,000.

A total of 3,507 bids were received, with a quota of 2,657 COEs available.

This is the second bidding exercise since the government announced in October that it would be progressively injecting up to 20,000 additional COEs across all vehicle categories from February 2025 over the next few years.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) explained that the extra COEs were possible because of the upcoming implementation of the ERP 2.0 system, which the authority said would help manage traffic congestion better.

Another reason cited by LTA was the changing travel patterns post-pandemic. An increase in flexible work arrangements had resulted in a fall in total vehicle mileage for private vehicles over the last five years, it said.

Further injections of COEs could be considered if distance-based charging is implemented in the future, said Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat in parliament on Nov 12.

He made clear that the injection of the 20,000 COEs from February 2025 is not linked to distance-based charging. 

"We have not made a decision on whether to implement distance-based charging, though ERP 2.0 gives us the option to do so," said Mr Chee. 

"We will need to study this further, including with the data from ERP 2.0, as there are trade-offs we need to think through carefully."