High COE prices hurt car-sharing platforms’ fleet expansion, electrification plans

HIGHER certificate of entitlement (COE) prices have constrained car-sharing platforms from expanding their fleets fast enough to meet the robust demand, and are also spoiling their plans to provide more electric cars, say industry players.

“The shortage of vehicles compared to the demand we’re seeing is very great,” said Kelvin Tay, chief executive officer at BlueSG.

Demand for shared cars have shot up, partly owing to record-breaking COE premiums with top executives of BlueSG, Tribecar and GetGo - popular car sharing operators in the city state - admitting that demand has begun to outstrip supply. They collectively operate 3,000 cars in Singapore – less than 1 per cent of the 650,958 cars on the road as of July 2022.