SINGAPORE - There will be 14,707 certificates of entitlement (COEs) available for tender between February and April, a 2.2 per cent increase from the current three-month period.

Releasing the COE quota figures on Jan 29, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said there will be 5,609 Category A COEs for the next three months – a 1.7 per cent bump from 5,513. These COEs are meant for smaller cars and less powerful electric vehicles (EVs).

Category B COEs, which are for larger cars and EVs, received a 2.5 per cent increase, from the 3,800 pieces in the current quota period to 3,895.

Among the number of COEs for the two car categories, 2,950 COEs were injected by LTA to boost the supply. These COEs were due to expire in the next projected supply peak and have been brought forward for redistribution.

For commercial vehicle COEs, the total supply will be 1,170 pieces – up from 1,129. In absolute numbers, the increase translates to fewer than seven additional Category C COEs available at each tender than in the current period.

LTA said the COE quota for categories A, B and C will continue to increase in 2024 before reaching the peak supply period from 2026.

The quota for motorcycles (Category D) in 2024 is expected to remain comparable to that in 2023, LTA added.

For the three months ending April 2024, there will be 3,105 such COEs available – the same number as in the previous three months.

LTA announced that from the three-month period starting in February, it will bring forward the guaranteed deregistrations of motorcycle COEs that had been renewed for five years and cannot be extended further, “to reduce quota supply volatility”.

This is similar to what LTA has already been doing for cars. In May 2023, the authority started injecting car COEs that are due to expire in the future to smoothen the COE supply and reduce the volatility that arises with peaks and troughs.

Otherwise, the formula to calculate the supply of COEs in a given three-month period is mainly determined by the average number of COEs that are expiring in the past four quarters.

Without the injection of COEs, there would have been 10 per cent fewer motorcycle COEs than the previous three months.

Mr Rex Tan, president of the Singapore Motor Cycle Trade Association, said the move to stabilise the supply of COEs was something the industry body had raised with the LTA. “We are glad that they have taken our feedback seriously.”

Motorcycle dealers like S.1 Motoring general manager Fude Poh noted that demand for motorcycles has been stronger than the norm for December and January. He said premiums will rise if COE supply was reduced.

He attributed the increased sales to drivers who switched to motorcycles because cars are too expensive and those trading their older motorcycles for new ones.

The number of Open category COEs will increase by 10.3 per cent, from 841 pieces to 928.

Although such COEs can be used to register other vehicle types except motorcycles, they tend to be used to register larger cars or EVs.

This effectively means that the total supply of COEs to register larger cars and EVs in the next three months will be 4,823 – 3.9 per cent more than the 4,641 available in the three-month period ending January 2024.

The reduction in taxi registration numbers is one reason why supply for the Open category has risen.

Taxi registrations are drawn from the quota for Open category COEs. Between July and December 2023, 602 taxis were registered, with 843 deregistered. The difference of 241 COEs will be shared between the next two quota periods up to July.

Car dealers had expected more COEs to be available.

Mr Jason Lim, managing director of Eurokars Auto BMW, said: “Everybody expected more COEs, given that it took so long for the LTA to work out the quota.”

He noted that previously, quota announcements would have been made a week or so earlier than it was this round.

Mr Neo Nam Heng, adviser to the Automobile Importer and Exporter Association, said dealers were expecting a sizeable increase in COEs because of LTA’s earlier statement in November that the supply of COEs will continue to rise in 2024 before the peak supply period from 2025.

“The increase this time is very little. Now, dealers and consumers do not know what the COE supply would be like in 2024 and this causes uncertainty for everyone,” he added.