COE prices end mixed, with premium for smaller cars inching up to $91,899

SINGAPORE – Certificate of entitlement (COE) prices ended mixed on July 17, with the premium for smaller cars continuing to edge upwards for the third consecutive tender.

At $91,899, the premium for Category A COEs – meant for smaller, less powerful cars and electric vehicles (EVs) – was 1 per cent higher than the $91,001 registered in

the previous exercise on July 3

.

Category B COEs, meant for larger, more powerful cars and EVs, dipped 0.9 per cent to end at $100,000, from $100,901 in the last tender. The difference in premiums for categories A and B is $8,101, narrowing from $9,900 two weeks ago.

The price of Open category (Category E) COEs, which can be used to register any vehicle type other than motorcycles, ended at $100,341, or 0.5 per cent lower than the $100,889 previously. These certificates are almost always used to register bigger, more powerful cars.

At $9,089, the motorcycle COE premium (Category D) was up 2.1 per cent from $8,900.

For commercial vehicles (Category C), the COE premium ended at $70,601, or 0.9 per cent higher than the previous price of $70,001.

COEs give people the right to own and use a vehicle here.

This is the last tender exercise under the

current COE quota period from May to July

.

The authorities are expected to announce the number of COEs available for the next three months before the next tender, which opens on Aug 5.

Following the latest COE exercise, the BMW 116i – a Category A car – now costs $207,888, or $1,000 more than before.

The BMW 520i, a Category B model, is now priced at $340,888, down by $1,000. These prices include COEs.

Motor dealers said orders for smaller cars have been fairly subdued over the past two weeks after the Category A COE premium rose at the last tender.

In this category, for instance, there were 6.1 per cent fewer bids in the latest tender than at the previous one.

Mr Ron Lim, head of sales at Nissan agent Tan Chong Motor, noticed that there was a rush of Category A bids in the last 10 minutes of the tender, which he believed propped up the premium.

Mr Nicholas Wong, chief executive at Honda agent Kah Motor, said some dealers were anxious to secure COEs in this round as the next tender is three weeks away – longer than the typical two-week gap between bidding exercises.

Mr Lim and Mr Wong said Category A was “overcrowded” with popular mass-market EVs, which can qualify for up to $40,000 in rebates to encourage adoption.

Sellers of such EVs can thus afford to place higher bids to secure COEs without having to raise the asking price for the cars – a move that those selling internal combustion engine car models cannot make without sacrificing profit margins.

Mr Lim added: “If nothing is done to address the situation, the price gap between the two car COE categories will only continue to narrow.

“The last thing the market wants to see is for the Category A COE premium to end up the same as, or even higher than, Category B.”