What is a COE in Singapore?
A Certificate of Entitlement, almost always shortened to COE, is the right to register and use a vehicle on Singapore's roads for ten years. Buy a new car, a new motorcycle, a new lorry, a new bus: you need a COE first. Without one, the vehicle cannot be registered with LTA, which means it cannot legally be driven.
The COE is a slot in a fixed pool. The pool's size, called the quota, is set every six months by the Land Transport Authority based on how many vehicles were de-registered in the previous year, plus a small adjustment to keep the total fleet roughly constant. Singapore has deliberately held its car population almost flat since 2018, which is why prices for a new COE are often eye-watering: every new entrant is, in effect, replacing an outgoing one.
How long does a COE last?
Ten years from the date of vehicle registration. After that, the vehicle cannot be driven on the road unless the COE is renewed. We cover the renewal options in detail in our renewal guide.
What does a COE cost?
The COE premium is set by an open bidding exercise that runs twice a month. As of recent exercises, premiums for a Category A COE (small and mid-sized cars) have hovered in the high tens of thousands; Cat B (larger cars and most EVs) has been higher again. The latest premiums across all five categories are always on our home page.
On top of the COE premium, a buyer pays the vehicle's Open Market Value, registration fees, road tax, and ARF (Additional Registration Fee). The COE is usually the largest single line item but not the only one. Total drive-away prices for a small new car in Singapore frequently land at three to four times what the same model costs elsewhere in the region.
The five categories
Every COE is registered under one of five categories, set by what kind of vehicle you're putting on the road and, for cars, the engine size and rated power. We list the rules for each on our category pages.
Why does Singapore have COEs?
The Vehicle Quota System was introduced in May 1990 to manage congestion on a small island with limited road network. More than three decades on, it remains the main lever LTA uses to control the size of the vehicle population. Renewing or replacing the system would be a fundamental shift in how Singapore manages mobility, and it has not happened.