Singapore is weighing a single certificate of entitlement (COE) pool for cars, replacing the Category A and B split with discounts for lower-value vehicles and surcharges for higher-value ones. The Land Transport Authority will publish a consultation paper this year, with the review due to conclude by the end of 2026.

The proposal came from Edward Chia, Deputy Chair of the Government Parliamentary Committee, at a focus group on car access attended by public, motor industry and academic participants. Its premise is that engine capacity and power ratings no longer separate mass-market cars from premium ones.

Automakers have been tuning specifications to bring vehicles under the Category A threshold, and the price gap between the two categories has narrowed as a result. Category A premiums exceeded those for Category B twice in 2026, in February and April, and a third time in June.

Other ideas raised at the session include using vehicle size as the criterion, allocating quota by need for larger families, a separate category for leasing firms, surcharges on multiple-car ownership and scrapping Category E. A shift to open market value would strip out the engineering workarounds automakers have built their Singapore line-ups around.

Source: Land Transport Authority (LTA) Singapore