Singapore will release 19,298 Certificates of Entitlement over the November-to-January bidding period, 1% more than in the previous quarter, the Land Transport Authority said, leaving car buyers little relief after small-car premiums climbed back to within about S$1,000 of a record.

The quota matters beyond the showroom floor. A COE, the right to own a vehicle for 10 years, now costs more than S$130,000 for an ordinary family car, and that cost feeds into car loans, dealer margins, private-hire fleet economics and the household budgets that drive Singapore consumer spending. The first tender under the new quota opens at noon on Monday, Nov. 2, the same day a public consultation on overhauling how car certificates are classified closes.

LTA COE quota: small cars get no extra supply

The LTA said in its Oct. 26 release that the quota is built mainly from 25% of the replacement certificates freed by vehicles deregistered between October 2025 and September 2026, plus a 0.25% annual growth allowance for Category C goods vehicles and buses, and adjustments for taxis, expired temporary certificates and other items. It added that the new quota is not affected by its review of car categories.

The increase did not reach Category A, the pool for cars with engines up to 1,600cc and up to 97kW of power, and for electric cars up to 110kW. The LTA's Annex A shows the Category A allocation unchanged at 7,134 for the quarter. Category B, for larger cars, rises to 5,707 from 5,527, the open Category E to 1,580 from 1,523 and goods vehicles and buses in Category C to 1,873 from 1,836, while motorcycles in Category D fall to 3,004 from 3,065. The total quota rises by 213 certificates from 19,085 in August to October.

Dealers quoted by Motorist.sg were unimpressed. Several said the extra certificates would be absorbed quickly, with some pointing to orders taken at a car exhibition the weekend before the announcement and to buyers rushing to register before electric-vehicle incentive changes take effect in January 2027.

The schedule adds a wrinkle. The LTA said there will be a three-week gap between the second November tender and the first December tender, longer than the usual two weeks. When an earlier tender came after a three-week gap in September, motor dealers told The Straits Times that the extra week gave traders more time to build up orders.

Category A edges past Category B again

At the last tender, which closed on Oct. 21, the Category A premium rose S$2,003 to S$132,004, according to LTA bidding results published on the government's data.gov.sg portal. Category B rose S$1,801 to S$131,901, leaving small-car certificates S$103 more expensive than those for bigger, more powerful cars.

That inversion has become routine. LTA data show it was the fourth time this year that Category A closed above Category B, after the second tenders of February, April and June. The record for Category A is S$133,009, set on Sept. 9, when The Straits Times reported it had broken a previous high of S$129,000 from July.

Other categories were mixed on Oct. 21. The open Category E premium fell S$1,210 to S$135,790, motorcycles in Category D slipped S$234 to S$10,778, and goods vehicles and buses in Category C edged up S$311 to S$92,200, according to the LTA data.

Ahead of the Oct. 21 result, the LTA warned that the upcoming car exhibition "may lead to elevated demand and COE prices," according to Mothership, and urged buyers and dealers to bid prudently.

Consultation on merging Categories A and B closes

The pricing pattern is the reason the LTA opened a consultation on Oct. 8. The agency said engine capacity and power, the criteria used since 2014 to separate mass-market from higher-value cars, have become less useful because manufacturers, particularly of electric cars, can tune specifications to fit inside Category A limits. That has pushed more buyers into the small-car pool and narrowed the price gap with Category B.

Its preliminary proposal would fold Categories A and B into one passenger car category and add a "feebate," a charge or rebate tied to a car's value, so that buyers of more expensive cars still pay more. The LTA is also asking how the open category should change if the merger goes ahead. Lim Zhijian, the LTA's chief operating officer, said in the release that it was timely to check whether the current categories remain "fit-for-purpose."

The agency said it had engaged more than 200 members of the public, academics and industry representatives, and that it had also received ideas such as allocating certificates by family need, a pay-as-you-bid system and a separate category for private-hire cars. Those are summarized in the consultation paper rather than proposed.

Feedback closes at 11:59 p.m. Singapore time on Monday, Nov. 2. The LTA expects to finish its review by the end of 2026 and publish findings and recommendations in the first half of 2027. Results of the first November tender are due at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4, and the next quota announcement, for February to April 2027, will come in January.