COE Renewal Calculator: How to Work Out the True Cost of Renewing Your COE

The LTA OneMotoring portal shows you the PQP. Your dealer tells you whether to renew or buy new. Neither gives you a complete picture of what COE renewal actually costs per year, per kilometre, or relative to buying a replacement. This guide walks through the full renewal cost calculation so you can make the decision with real numbers, not guesswork.

What You Need Before You Calculate

To run a meaningful COE renewal cost calculation, gather these inputs:

1. Your vehicle category (Cat A or Cat B) — determines which PQP rate applies
2. Current PQP — available on the LTA OneMotoring website. As of early March 2026: Cat A S$106,541, Cat B S$115,938
3. Your car's current annual road tax — find this on your road tax renewal notice or LTA OneMotoring
4. Your car's age at renewal — drives the road tax surcharge calculation
5. Estimated annual maintenance costs — be honest here; service history is your best guide
6. Your annual mileage — needed to calculate cost per kilometre

The Core Calculation: Annual Cost of a 5-Year Renewal

The annual cost of renewing COE for 5 years has three components:

Component 1 — COE renewal depreciation

A 5-year renewal costs 50% of PQP. At current Cat A PQP of S$106,541, that's S$53,270.

Because the car has zero residual value at year 15 (cannot be renewed again, PARF is long gone), the entire S$53,270 is pure depreciation over 5 years.

Annual COE renewal depreciation = S$53,270 ÷ 5 = S$10,654/year

Component 2 — Road tax surcharge

Cars older than 10 years pay a 10% surcharge per additional year, up to 50% extra at year 15.

If your base road tax is S$900/year:

Total extra road tax over 5 years: S$90 + S$180 + S$270 + S$360 + S$450 = S$1,350 cumulative, or roughly S$270/year average.

Component 3 — Maintenance

This varies dramatically by make and model. Use your actual service history as the guide, not optimistic estimates. General benchmarks:

• Well-maintained Japanese car (Toyota, Honda) at year 10: S$2,000–S$3,500/year
• Well-maintained Korean car (Hyundai, Kia): S$2,500–S$4,000/year
• European car (VW, BMW, Mercedes) at year 10: S$4,000–S$8,000+/year, with tail risk of major failures

Total annual cost example (Cat A car, base road tax S$900, Japanese make, moderate maintenance):

S$10,654 + S$270 + S$3,000 = S$13,924/year to keep the car on the road

On 15,000km annually, that's roughly S$0.93/km — before petrol or charging.

The Core Calculation: Annual Cost of a 10-Year Renewal

For a 10-year renewal at Cat A PQP of S$106,541:

Annual COE renewal depreciation = S$106,541 ÷ 10 = S$10,654/year

Note that the annualised COE depreciation is identical to the 5-year renewal. The difference is what happens at the end:

• After a 5-year renewal: the car is scrapped. Zero residual.
• After a 10-year renewal: you have the option to renew again at year 20, at whatever the PQP is then. You're buying flexibility.

The additional costs (road tax surcharge, maintenance) are significantly higher over a 10-year period than a 5-year period, because the car is 10–20 years old during the second tenure versus 10–15 years in a 5-year renewal. Budget aggressively for maintenance in years 15–20 if you're considering this path — a 15-year-old car requires serious capital reserves regardless of how well it was maintained earlier.

How to Use LTA's OneMotoring Calculator

LTA provides a COE Renewal Cost indicator on the OneMotoring portal. To access it:

1. Log in to OneMotoring with Singpass
2. Navigate to "Vehicles" → "COE Renewal"
3. Enter your vehicle registration number
4. The portal will show your applicable PQP and the calculated renewal cost for both 5-year and 10-year options

This gives you the gross renewal figures. It does not calculate your annual depreciation, road tax surcharges, or maintenance trajectory — those you need to add yourself using the framework above.

What the Calculator Doesn't Tell You

The standard PQP calculation omits several real costs:

PARF forfeiture: If you still have residual PARF value at the point of renewal (possible for cars registered before 2026 with substantial ARF), renewing forfeits that rebate immediately. A car with S$15,000 remaining PARF that renews for 5 years has an effective renewal cost of S$53,270 + S$15,000 = S$68,270. Many owners don't factor this in.

Opportunity cost of capital: S$53,000 tied up in a 5-year renewal could otherwise be part of a downpayment on a newer car. This is less relevant when new cars have near-zero PARF (as of 2026), but still worth acknowledging.

Repair tail risk: A 10-year-old car that has been well-maintained can continue reliably. But specific models carry elevated risk — VW/Audi DSG gearbox mechatronics failures run S$2,000–$6,000, Toyota Prius hybrid battery replacements run S$2,000–$5,000, and Mitsubishi CVT issues can exceed S$4,000. These aren't certain, but they're common enough to budget for.

The decision whether to renew, and for how long, depends on running this full cost model against a realistic alternative — whether that's buying a different used car with remaining original COE, or buying new under the current PARF regime. The Singapore COE Navigator includes a complete comparison worksheet with all five cost components side by side, plus a make-specific repair cost database to help you estimate the maintenance variable honestly.