Cat A COE August 2026 closed the 2nd bidding exercise at $128,501, a 3.7% jump from the August 1st exercise’s $123,890 and 22.9% higher than the same exercise a year ago. That round-on-round gain of $4,611 is one of the sharpest Cat A has recorded in recent memory, and it left the category at its second-highest close on record, behind only the $129,000 of the July 2026 1st exercise. If you have been waiting for prices to soften before committing, this result makes the case for waiting considerably harder to hold.

The numbers in context

A 3.7% monthly rise sounds modest until you set it against the broader trend. Twelve months ago, Cat A sat at $104,524. The category has now added more than $23,900 in a single year. To put that another way, the COE premium alone has risen by roughly the cost of a mid-range used hatchback.

Cat B, which covers cars above 1,600cc or above 130bhp, closed the same exercise at $131,001, up 0.8% on the previous round. Cat E, the open category that often signals where the market is heading, came in at $135,000. The gap between Cat A and Cat B has narrowed to $2,500, which is historically tight and could suggest that Cat A demand is running particularly strong relative to supply.

Cat C (goods vehicles and buses) and Cat D (motorcycles) moved by smaller margins, so the August pressure appears concentrated in the passenger car categories rather than across the board.

What could be pushing Cat A higher

No single factor explains a move of this size, but a few things are worth considering together.

The quota for Cat A has been under pressure since LTA adjusted the vehicle population growth rate. Fewer COEs in the pool means each bidder is competing for a smaller slice. If overall demand holds steady while supply contracts, prices tend to move up faster than most buyers expect.

There is also a compositional shift happening in the Cat A segment. More hybrid and mild-hybrid models now qualify under the 1,600cc and 130bhp thresholds, which has widened the pool of buyers who need a Cat A COE. Models that previously required Cat B have been re-engineered or re-tuned to fall within Cat A limits, bringing buyers who would historically have bid in Cat B into direct competition with traditional Cat A buyers. That could be one reason the Cat A premium is rising faster than Cat B right now.

Dealer restocking cycles may also be a factor. When dealers anticipate further price rises, they tend to secure COEs ahead of confirmed customer orders, which adds demand to the pool beyond what retail sales alone would generate. This is difficult to confirm from the outside, but it is a pattern that has appeared in previous run-up periods.

How August 2026 compares to earlier peaks

Cat A’s pre-2025 high was $106,000 in the October 2023 2nd exercise, before a correction brought it down to the mid-$80,000s by late 2023. The category then climbed steadily through 2024 and 2025. At $128,501, August 2026 sits well above that previous peak, which means buyers who deferred purchases hoping to catch a correction have, on average, paid more for the wait.

The 2023 peak was partly driven by post-pandemic supply chain disruptions that constrained new car supply while demand remained strong. The current environment is different: supply chains have largely normalised, but quota tightening and the compositional shift described above appear to be doing similar work on the demand side of the equation.

One structural point worth keeping in mind: COE premiums do not move in a straight line. There have been three separate corrections of 10% or more within the past four years, each followed by a recovery to a higher base. Whether August 2026 represents a new base or a temporary spike is genuinely uncertain.

The 10-year COE and total cost of ownership

At $128,501, the COE premium alone on a typical Cat A car now exceeds the open market value of many three-to-five-year-old used cars. For buyers financing the purchase, the COE is included in the loan principal, which means the monthly repayment impact is real and ongoing.

A useful way to think about it: at $128,501 the COE alone is the single largest line in the on-the-road price of a mass-market hatchback or small sedan, on top of the car’s open market value, its additional registration fee and the registration fee itself. Five years ago the COE line alone was around $46,000, so the same car carries roughly $82,000 more of pure certificate cost today.

This is relevant for buyers considering whether to renew a Preferential Additional Registration Fee (PARF) rebate car or hold on to an older vehicle. The cost of re-entering the market has risen materially, and that changes the calculus on whether to keep an existing car running well rather than trading up.

If your current car is approaching the 10-year mark and you are weighing the cost of maintenance against the cost of a new COE, a proper inspection and service assessment can give you a clearer picture of what the next two to three years of ownership might actually cost.

What this means for buyers at the next exercise

The next Cat A bidding exercise is the 1st exercise of September 2026. Based on the August trajectory, it would be reasonable to expect continued upward pressure, though any single exercise can move in either direction depending on how many dealers and private buyers submit bids on a given day.

For buyers who have already committed to a car and are waiting on a COE allocation from a dealer, the August result could affect the final price if the dealer has not yet locked in the COE. It is worth confirming with your dealer whether the quoted price is based on a COE already secured or on the prevailing rate at time of registration.

For buyers still at the consideration stage, the 22.9% year-on-year increase might suggest that further deferral carries its own cost. That said, no one can say with certainty where Cat A will be in three or six months. The honest answer is that the trend has been up, the structural factors that drove it have not changed, and the next correction, when it comes, may not return prices to where they were a year ago.

If you are also thinking about the mechanical side of ownership, whether that is servicing a new car properly from the start or keeping an older one in good shape to avoid re-entering this market, the team at The Right Workshop at Autobay @ Kaki Bukit, Singapore #02-61 is available to talk through what makes sense for your situation. You can also keep track of every COE result as it drops on our COE results page, updated after each bidding exercise.