SINGAPORE: Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums closed mostly higher in the latest bidding exercise on Wednesday (Dec 18).

For Category A cars, or those 1,600cc and below with horsepower not exceeding 130bhp, premiums closed at S$96,000 (US$71,000), up from S$94,000 in the last exercise.

Premiums for larger and more powerful cars in Category B rose to S$109,000 from S$103,010.

COEs for commercial vehicles, which include goods vehicles and buses, fell to S$69,890 from S$70,289 in the previous bidding exercise.

Motorcycle premiums closed at S$8,381, up from S$7,878 in the last exercise.

Open category COEs, which can be used for any vehicle type but end up being used mainly for large cars, rose to S$108,992 from S$104,001.

A total of 3,864 bids were received, with a quota of 2,667 COEs available.

This is the fourth bidding exercise since the government announced in October that it would be progressively injecting up to 20,000 additional COEs across all vehicle categories from February 2025 over the next few years.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) explained that the extra COEs were possible because of the upcoming implementation of the ERP 2.0 system, which the authority said would help manage traffic congestion better.

Another reason cited by LTA was the changing travel patterns post-pandemic. An increase in flexible work arrangements had resulted in a fall in total vehicle mileage for private vehicles over the last five years, it said.

Further injections of COEs could be considered if distance-based charging is implemented in the future, said Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat in parliament on Nov 12.

He made clear that the injection of the 20,000 COEs from February 2025 is not linked to distance-based charging. 

"We have not made a decision on whether to implement distance-based charging, though ERP 2.0 gives us the option to do so," said Mr Chee then.

"We will need to study this further, including with the data from ERP 2.0, as there are trade-offs we need to think through carefully."