LTA to inject up to 20,000 additional COEs over the next few years

It expects to be able to better manage traffic congestion with ERP 2.0 system

- Kok Yufeng

Up to 20,000 additional certificates of entitlement (COE) will be injected across the five vehicle categories over the next few years from February 2025.

Announcing this on Oct 29, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said it is able to increase the vehicle population here by about 2 per cent of current levels as travel patterns have evolved, with the total mileage clocked by vehicles coming down by around 6 per cent from 2019 to 2023.

The new satellite Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system, or ERP 2.0, will also allow the authorities to better manage traffic congestion and vehicle usage by introducing new "virtual gantries", LTA added.

The injection of COEs which gives one the right to own a vehicle will boost COE supply, though it is unclear at this point how the move will affect premiums.

COE prices had dropped slightly across all categories at the latest tender exercise on Oct 23, though premiums for both car categories remained above $100,000. Singapore had 1,003,126 vehicles on the road as at September 2024.

Asked how it intends to allocate the additional 20,000 COEs, LTA said it would distribute them after reviewing relevant information, including traffic data and the deregistration rate across various vehicle categories.

It did not elaborate further, or specify how many years the injection will be spread across.