COE premiums soar across the board

Singapore

PREMIUMS for certificates of entitlement (COEs) soared across the board on Wednesday as buyers rushed to book a new car ahead of changes to the Carbon Emissions-Based Vehicle Scheme (CEVS) which kick in from July 1, 2015.

Category A COEs, for cars below 1,600cc and 130 hp, rose S$3,049 to S$67,749.

Cat B, for cars above 1,600cc or 130 hp, climbed S$4,723 to S$76,612; Cat E, the open category which currently tracks Cat B, spiked by S$5,900 to S$78,000.

Meanwhile, Cat C, for goods vehicle and buses, jumped S$4,002 to S$64,001, and Cat D for motorcycles rose S$702 to S$6,312.

The CEVS is being extended for another two years from the second half of 2015, with the rebates offered and the surcharges levied being tweaked.

The majority of popular mass-market models will have the CEVS rebate reduced by S$5,000; most bigger cars will be slapped with higher surcharges of between S$5,000 and S$30,000.

This has sent prospective buyers on both ends of the price spectrum rushing to the showrooms lately.

The director of a luxury dealership said: "Those who are buying luxury cars want to avoid the new surcharge, and those buying small cars don't want to lose their current rebate.''

He added: "So everyone who came in said they want to their cars registered before July 1."

Almost everyone in the industry has enjoyed strong demand in the past three weeks. The fresh bookings come on top of a backlog of orders which most dealers have been trying to clear. The backlog had built up after the Cat A COE premium slipped to a three-year low of S$57,199 in mid-February.

In an indication of how hot the demand was, the bids received for Cat B for Wednesday's bidding exercise - the first for April - were close to 21/2 times the number of COEs available. Usually, it is less than double.