Fewer COEs for small cars for the next 6 months

The number of certificates of entitlement (COEs) to be made available for small car buyers will plunge over the next six months.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Thursday that the overall monthly number of COEs set for August to January will be 3,226, which is 12.7 per cent down from the 3,694 certificates allocated monthly for the February to July period of this year.

The monthly COE quota for cars up to 1,600cc and taxis will fall 36.6 per cent to 786 from 1,239.

Buyers of large cars, commercial vehicles and motorcycles will not be too affected, however.

For cars above 1,600cc, there will be 701 COEs per month, just slightly higher than the 699 monthly
number set before.

There will be 360 COEs per month for commercial vehicles, 11.4 per cent more than the previous 319.

For motorcycles, there will be 894 COEs per month, 9 per cent more than the previous 820.

For COEs in the Open Category, there will be 485 COEs a month, a 21.4 per cent drop from 617.

Following a spike in April, when COE prices breached $90,000 in two categories, the LTA said last month it will slow down planned cuts in the vehicle growth rate.

It will allow the number of vehicles to grow by no more than 1 per cent per annum from August this year, and reduce that allowed growth rate to 0.5 per cent per annum from February next year to January 2015.

Earlier, the agency had planned to reduce the vehicle growth rate from 1.5 per cent per annum to 0.5 per cent per annum from this August.