COE Quota Premium Singapore: What It Is and Why It Matters

When people say "the COE price is $106,000," what they're actually quoting is the Quota Premium — the price that clears the bidding exercise for that fortnight. Understanding exactly how the Quota Premium is determined, why it can swing by thousands of dollars between exercises, and what the historical peaks look like will help you make sense of whether today's prices are high, low, or somewhere in the middle.

What the Quota Premium Is

Each COE bidding exercise — called a COE tender — runs twice a month. Bidders submit a reserve price, and the Current COE Price (CCP) rises in $1 increments as the system works out how many bidders are willing to pay. The exercise closes when the number of remaining bidders equals the available quota for that category.

The Quota Premium is defined as the highest unsuccessful bid price plus $1. Every successful bidder — whether they bid $106,000 or $200,000 — pays the same Quota Premium. This uniform-price auction format means there's no advantage to overbidding aggressively. The rational strategy is to bid your true maximum willingness to pay.

For vehicle renewal, the relevant figure is the Prevailing Quota Premium (PQP), which is the three-month moving average of Quota Premiums. Because COE prices fluctuate, the PQP smooths out spikes and dips. As of early 2026, the Category A PQP sits at roughly $106,000–$108,000 and the Category B PQP at roughly $115,000–$121,000.

How Each Tender Works

A COE tender exercise typically opens on the first or third Monday of the month at noon and closes the following Wednesday at 4 PM. During that window, authorised bidders — car dealers acting on your behalf, or individuals bidding through their bank or LTA's direct bidding channel — can submit and revise bids upward.

The timeline matters because dealers often bid conservatively at the start of the exercise and adjust based on how the CCP moves. If you're buying a new car and the dealer is bidding on your behalf, ask them what their bidding strategy is and whether they're using a fixed bid or an auto-bid tied to a ceiling. Some dealers offer "guaranteed COE" arrangements where they absorb the cost if the QP comes in above an agreed threshold — useful for buyers who can't wait for multiple exercises.

Results are announced on the closing Wednesday. The LTA publishes the Quota Premium for each category publicly on its website.

Historical Highs: How High Has COE Gone?

The highest COE prices ever recorded occurred during the 2023–2024 run-up, when Category B premiums reached $150,001 and Category A touched $106,000. To put this in perspective, Category A premiums were around $50,000–$70,000 for much of the late 2010s and dipped below $40,000 during the COVID-19 disruption in 2020–2021 before surging sharply.

The post-pandemic surge was driven by a near-simultaneous hit of supply disruption (global chip shortage reducing new car supply), pent-up demand, and a supply quota calculation methodology that lagged behind the market. LTA has since adjusted the quota calculation from a one-quarter rolling average to a four-quarter rolling average, which smooths the supply response to deregistration patterns.

By early 2026, prices have settled into the $100,000–$115,000 range across categories, with an unusual anomaly in February 2026 where Category A briefly surpassed Category B — driven partly by strong demand for mass-market EVs (which qualify for Cat A if their motor output is 110kW or below) and a slight softening in Cat B as some buyers waited out the post-Budget 2026 uncertainty.

Category A vs Category B Premiums: The 2026 Anomaly

Category A covers cars with engines up to 1,600cc and 130bhp, plus EVs up to 110kW. Category B covers everything larger. Historically, Cat B commanded a premium because it includes luxury and performance vehicles where buyers have higher willingness to pay.

In recent exercises, that gap has narrowed considerably and inverted briefly. The reason: the 110kW Cat A threshold introduced by LTA brought popular mass-market EVs — including the BYD Atto 3 — into Cat A rather than Cat B. This increased competition for Cat A COEs without a corresponding increase in quota, pushing the Cat A Quota Premium higher. Meanwhile, Cat B demand softened slightly as Budget 2026's PARF rebate cuts dampened enthusiasm for expensive new car purchases.

For buyers choosing between a Cat A and Cat B vehicle, the convergence in Quota Premiums means the historical price advantage of staying in Cat A is now smaller than before.

What the PQP Means for COE Renewal

If your car is approaching 10 years and you're considering a COE renewal rather than buying new, the PQP is the number you care about — it determines your renewal cost. A 5-year renewal costs 50% of the PQP; a 10-year renewal costs the full PQP.

With Cat A PQP at around $106,000–$108,000 in early 2026, a 5-year renewal costs approximately $53,000–$54,000 in cash (loans for COE renewal are harder to obtain than for new car purchases). A 10-year renewal at full PQP means committing over $100,000 to keep driving a car that will have no residual PARF value at the end.

Whether that makes financial sense depends on your car's reliability, your maintenance budget, and how that $53,000–$106,000 compares to the true all-in cost of buying a new car — which, after Budget 2026's PARF changes, now leaves buyers with almost no backend rebate value at the end of 10 years.

The Singapore COE Navigator walks through the 5-year vs 10-year renewal decision with a worked financial model — including the PARF forfeiture calculation that most renewal guides leave out. Get the complete kit here.

Staying Current with COE News

Quota Premiums are published after each bidding exercise. For the latest figures, check the LTA OneMotoring portal or reliable local automotive sites that cover COE results after each Wednesday close. Prices can shift by $2,000–$5,000 between exercises based on quota adjustments, macroeconomic sentiment, and policy announcements.

The most important policy signals to track are quota adjustments (LTA announces quarterly) and any changes to vehicle taxes — ARF, VES, EEAI — in the annual Budget. Budget 2026 was the most consequential in years. If you're timing a purchase or renewal, watching these signals matters more than trying to predict short-term price movements in individual exercises.