Car buyers have until 4pm Wednesday, Sept 23, to lock in bids for September’s second Certificate of Entitlement exercise, the Land Transport Authority’s mid-month window on OneMotoring that opened at noon on Monday. When the clock stops, Category A—covering smaller cars and qualifying electric vehicles—will allocate 1,193 certificates against demand still haunted by the S$133,009 quota premium set on Sept 9, the highest Cat A close on record.

Supply numbers for this round

LTA’s board lists Category B at 927 certificates, Category C for goods vehicles and buses at 318, motorcycles at 522 in Category D, and 269 open Category E certificates. Those quotas sit slightly below the first September exercise, which offered 1,195 Cat A slots, but the difference is marginal compared with bid sentiment. Dealers entered this week after a three-week gap from the Aug 19 round, a pause LTA cited when urging prudent bidding as premiums climbed.

Successful bidders pay the uniform quota premium at close, not their private reserve, so aggressive dealer stacks can lift clearing prices even when households bid conservatively. September’s first exercise drew 1,708 Cat A bids for 1,195 certificates—a 1.43 bids-per-COE ratio that signals continued oversubscription. Category B cleared at S$135,001 and Category E at S$137,890 the same day, pulling family budgets that thought Cat A alone was expensive.

Why S$133,009 matters today

The Sep 9 print beat July’s S$129,000 peak and added S$4,508 to the Aug 19 S$128,501 close. Chinese EV entrants priced under Japanese compacts continue to funnel first-time buyers into Cat A, while zero vehicle-growth policy means every new registration still requires a deregistration somewhere else. LTA’s August-to-October 2026 tranche supplies 19,085 certificates, only 0.2 per cent above the prior quarter—enough incremental quota to nudge supply, not enough to guarantee relief if sentiment runs hot into Wednesday’s close.

Finance teams should model repayments assuming premiums stay above S$130,000 even if LTA’s public pleas cool the room. Hire-purchase calculators treat COE as principal alongside chassis cost; a S$3,000 swing changes monthly instalments more than a showroom discount.

Practical bidding discipline

OneMotoring accepts revisions until the deadline; last-hour spikes are common when dealers clear backlog orders. Private buyers without trade-in leverage should set a ceiling before Monday noon and ignore headline chatter. Results typically publish the same afternoon once LTA processes bids—dealers watch bid counts while households wait for the clearing table.

Miss this window and the next scheduled exercise lands in early October, another potential gap depending on the 2026 calendar. Motorcycle riders face a separate pain point: Category D jumped 11.1 per cent to S$12,556 on Sep 9, affecting delivery fleets that do not share car buyers’ loan terms.

After 4pm

Wednesday’s outcome sets temporary COE values for new registrations closed this week, while ten-year renewals follow the Prevailing Quota Premium—a three-month average that lagged Sep 9’s spike. Households extending older cars should read the companion pricing piece before conflating today’s bid with tomorrow’s renewal bill. For shoppers still in the market, the only actionable input until results drop is the bid in the system at 4pm—not yesterday’s record, but the number competitors are willing to beat.

Dealer floor and EV mix

Authorised showrooms in Leng Kee and Ubi entered the week with orders stacked during the post-Aug 19 gap, when Cat A already sat at S$128,501. Sales staff quote “COE-inclusive” packages that move daily as sentiment shifts; a buyer who hesitated on Tuesday may face a higher clearing price on Wednesday afternoon even if list discounts widen. PARF cars and short-lease options look cheaper when headline COE scares households off new metal, pushing demand into the used market where premiums are baked into asking prices.

EV rebates and the Cat A power cap continue to reshape mix: models under 110kW stay in the smaller-car bucket regardless of battery size, while hotter dual-motor trims spill into Cat B. Fleet buyers registering multiple units in one exercise can skew oversubscription metrics that private bidders read as momentum. LTA’s data.gov.sg history helps, but the live board on OneMotoring is the only source for this week’s quota totals until results post.