PQP COE Singapore: What the Prevailing Quota Premium Is and How It's Calculated

If your car is approaching ten years old, you will hear the term PQP constantly — from the LTA renewal page, from your dealer, from forums. PQP is the price you pay to renew your COE, and it is not the same as today's live bidding price. Understanding exactly how it is calculated tells you whether now is a good or bad time to renew, and how the next few months' bidding exercises could shift your cost.

What PQP Stands For

PQP stands for Prevailing Quota Premium. It is the price used for COE renewals — both 5-year and 10-year — and it is a smoothed average designed to stop renewal costs from swinging wildly based on a single fortnight's bidding result.

When you renew your COE: - A 5-year renewal costs 50% of the PQP for your vehicle's category. - A 10-year renewal costs 100% of the PQP.

You do not bid. You pay the PQP that is current on the date you process the renewal.

How PQP Is Calculated

The PQP is the moving average of the Quota Premium (QP) from the last three months of COE bidding exercises. Because bidding happens twice a month, three months of exercises means approximately six data points are averaged.

This three-month smoothing has two practical consequences:

1. It lags the live market. If COE prices spiked sharply this month, the PQP will not fully reflect that until about three months have passed and the spike has cycled through the rolling window.

2. It is relatively predictable in the short term. Because you already know the last two months' results, you can estimate where the PQP will sit over the next few weeks. If you are watching the calendar and trying to time a renewal, this is useful information.

Current PQP Rates (February/March 2026)

PQP is updated after each bidding exercise. The approximate values in early 2026 are:

These figures move as older high-price exercises cycle out of the rolling average and newer exercises (whether higher or lower) enter. Cat B PQP has been declining gradually as Cat B Quota Premiums softened — reflecting the broader market anomaly where Cat A has approached Cat B on the live bidding side.

Why PQP and the Live QP Can Diverge

In normal conditions, PQP tracks the live bidding price closely because the market is stable. But in 2026, the live Cat A QP briefly exceeded the live Cat B QP — yet the Cat B PQP remained higher because it still carries the weight of earlier months when Cat B traded at a premium.

This divergence has a direct consequence: if you own a Cat B car and your renewal window falls now, you are paying a PQP that reflects older, higher Cat B prices. If you can wait even a few months, the lower recent Cat B QP results will pull the Cat B PQP down further.

The same logic applies in reverse. If you expect prices to rise, renewing earlier locks in the current (lower) PQP.

PQP vs. Quota Premium: Practical Difference

New car buyers pay the QP. Renewal owners pay the PQP. If the market is rising, the PQP will be lower than the QP. If the market is falling, the PQP will be higher.

The Cost of Renewal in Practice

For a Cat A car renewing in March 2026: - 5-year renewal: 50% of S$106,541 = approximately S$53,270 - 10-year renewal: 100% of S$106,541 = approximately S$106,541

For most owners, a 5-year renewal requires cash payment since car loan lenders rarely finance COE renewals (some do, but at limited LTV and shorter tenures). The 5-year option is often the only realistic path for owners who cannot deploy six figures in cash.

The 10-year renewal makes sense if the car is mechanically excellent, the alternative would be buying new at similarly high cost, and the owner intends to drive for the full extended period. But it comes with a critical hidden cost: the PARF rebate on the car is forfeited at the moment of renewal. If your car holds a S$12,000 PARF rebate, the true cost of a 10-year renewal is not just S$106,541 — it is S$118,541 when you factor in the PARF you surrender.

Using PQP to Plan Your Renewal Timing

Checking the current PQP on the OneMotoring portal (onemotoring.lta.gov.sg) gives you the exact figure for your vehicle's category. Since the PQP is updated publicly after each bidding exercise, you can track the trend over four to six weeks before your renewal date.

If PQP is declining (as Cat B has been in early 2026), waiting a few months reduces your renewal cost. If PQP is rising, renewing sooner protects against further increases. The window of flexibility is usually two to three months before your current COE expires — the LTA allows early renewal.

For the full analytical framework — including how to calculate whether renewal or buying new produces lower annual depreciation under current PARF rules — the Singapore COE Navigator walks through every variable with worked examples.

Get the Singapore COE Navigator

The Bottom Line

PQP is the three-month rolling average of live COE Quota Premiums, applied specifically to renewals. Cat A PQP sits around S$106,541 in early March 2026; Cat B PQP is around S$115,938 and declining. A 5-year renewal costs 50% of PQP; a 10-year renewal costs 100%. Because PQP lags the live market, owners in a declining price environment benefit from waiting; in a rising environment, they benefit from renewing early. The PARF forfeiture is the frequently missed cost that must be added to whichever PQP number you face.