THE total number of Certificates of Entitlement (COEs) available for the period of February to April 2025 has gone up by 8.2 per cent or 1,299 to 17,133, compared to the preceding three-month period of November to January.
The latest quota is also about 16 per cent higher than the same quarter last year.
On the quarter, quotas in the categories A, B, C and E all rose by about 10 per cent. Only Category D, for motorcycles, stayed flat, at 3,105.
By percentage, Category E, the Open category that can be used to register any type of vehicle except motorcycles, increased the most – by 10.7 per cent to 1,187 from the last quarter.
The quota for Category A, used to register mainstream passenger cars, went up 10.3 per cent or 638 to 6,828. Category B, for larger and more powerful cars, rose 10 per cent or 405 to 4,465. Category C, for commercial vehicles and buses, was up 10 per cent or 72 to 1,548.
Although an about 10 per cent quota rise looks more promising than the previous incremental increases of around 5 per cent, the absolute number of increases is limited given a small base, noted Sabrina Sng, managing director for Lotus, Polestar and insurance at dealership group Wearnes Automotive.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
The increased quota might not be sufficient to curb the continued upward pressure hitting the COE prices given a high demand, especially post a motor show that just concluded early January, Sng said.
“There will still be very strong bidding pressure in the next few rounds,” she added.
The Land Transport Authority on Thursday (Jan 16) said that, given the vehicle usage trends and improved capabilities of ERP2.0, it would progressively inject up to about 20,000 additional COEs across the vehicle categories from February 2025, over the next few years.
The February-to-April 2025 quota includes a quarter of the replacement COEs from vehicles deregistered in the 12-month period of 2024, and a provision for a 0.25 per cent a year growth for Category C.
It also covers adjustments for changes in the taxi population, expired COEs, the Early Turnover Scheme for commercial vehicles, redistribution from guaranteed deregistrations for categories A, B and D, and the injection of additional COEs.
