Cat A COE premium falls l O% in biggest drop since january

Prices down across all categories except for commercial vehicles with l% rise

- Lee Nian Tjoe

Certificate of entitlement (COE) premiums dropped across all categories except for commercial vehicles on Nov 20, with the price of a certificate for smaller cars tumbling by $10,000 to reach $89,889.

This is a 10 per cent drop and the third consecutive tender exercise where the price of a Category A COE has fallen. It is also the biggest drop for the category - meant for smaller and less powerful cars and electric vehicles (EVs) - since the first tender exercise of 2024 in Ianuary, when the price of a Category A certificate fell by $19,990.

The premium for a Category B COE, used to register larger and more powerful cars and EVs, dipped 2.7 per cent to $105,081, down from $108,001 previously.

But the latest car COE premiums are still above the levels seen in 2021, which had some of the lowest levels in recent years after tender exercises resumed following the elevated safe distancing measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.

At that time, a Category A COE cost between $40,609 and $58,000, while a Category B certificate was between $49,001 and $82,801.