SINGAPORE - Certificate of entitlement (COE) prices for both car categories hit record highs in the tender exercise that closed on Wednesday.
The COE premium for cars up to 1,600cc and 130bhp, as well as for electric vehicles (EVs) with up to 110 kilowatts of power, finished at $93,503, up 6.25 per cent from $88,000 and surpassing the record of $92,100 set in January 2013.
For larger cars and more powerful EVs, the COE premium ended at $116,201, a 0.61 per cent increase over the previous high of $115,501 two weeks ago.
At $85,389, the premium for commercial vehicle COE – applicable to vans, trucks and lorries – was 6.27 per cent lower than the $91,101 posted a fortnight ago.
The motorcycle COE premium also went down on Wednesday. At $12,001, it is 3.14 per cent lower than the previous round’s $12,390.
The price for the Open category COE ended at $116,020, a slight increase of $20 over the $116,000 posted two weeks ago.
Mr Neo Nam Heng, adviser to the Automobile Importer and Exporter Association, said that dealers are “disappointed with the COE results”, as they were expecting premiums for cars to fall.
Mr Neo, who is also chairman of diversified motor group Prime, said that some dealers thought the unsuccessful bidders from earlier rounds would secure the needed COEs by early March.
However, the two categories for cars collectively attracted 1,438 bids, which was 11.13 per cent more than the number in the previous tender.
There was greater interest in the category for smaller cars than that for bigger and more powerful cars.
With 20 minutes to the closing of the tender, the COE premium for smaller cars was already higher than the $88,000 posted in the last tender. In contrast, up until the last four to five minutes, the COE price for larger and more powerful cars was still lower than what was recorded a fortnight ago.
While the interest in less powerful cars have been attributed to the premium European brands running successful sales campaigns in the past two weeks, industry sources said that the bids in the category for the more powerful cars may have come from large corporate buyers who are ramping up their fleets of larger multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) to lease to private-hire drivers.
Being able to ferry six or more passengers, these MPVs are said to be in demand, as they command higher fares on the ride-sharing platforms such as Grab and Gojek, where they are considered premium models.
The fall in COE premium for commercial vehicles came after the price broke records in consecutive tender exercises. The persistent surge in the premium was previously attributed to dealers rushing to register vehicles before the expiry of the attractive rebates under the Commercial Vehicle Emissions Scheme, which is set to be revised from April 1.
Mr Ron Lim, head of sales and marketing at Tan Chong Motor, said that Wednesday’s result suggests that those with commercial vehicles to register may have already obtained their fill of COEs earlier.
He believes that dealers may be holding out and expecting the COE premium to drop in future tenders when there is no longer pressure to beat the deadline.
