COE Hits an All-Time High of $139,001. A Solar System Pays You Back Instead.

On 4 November 2026, Category A COE premiums closed at an all-time high of S$139,001, with Category B at S$132,334. That is the cost of a certificate, not a car — before the vehicle, the insurance, or the road tax. A solar system costs a fraction of that, is competitively priced against other installers, comes with real workmanship and material warranties, and instead of expiring to zero in 10 years, it earns money for you every month through a lower electricity bill. One is a piece of paper. The other is an asset that pays you back, which is a big part of why homeowners are increasingly calling Hao Solar their number 1 choice for getting one installed.

How high did COE premiums actually go?

Category A closed at S$139,001 on 4 November 2026, a new all-time high, with Category B close behind at S$132,334. Neither number buys a car, insurance, or a single kilometre of road tax — it is purely the price of the right to own a vehicle for 10 years. When those 10 years are up, the certificate is worth exactly nothing, and the whole amount has to be found again from scratch.

What does a solar system actually give you back?

Unlike a COE, a solar installation keeps paying you back for as long as it is on the roof. Take an illustrative 11.8 kWp system on a landed home using 1,600 kWh a month, installed for about S$16,500, less than an eighth of a Category A COE. It generates around 15,066 kWh a year and brings back about S$4,314 to S$4,611 in its first year in bill savings and export credit, paying for itself in about 3.6 to 3.8 years. A COE, over its 10 years, brings back nothing.

The table below shows the estimated annual generation and saving for four common landed-home types, using the same model behind the calculator on this site. These are indicative figures confirmed at a free site survey, not marketing numbers, and they move the opposite way to a COE: the system keeps generating year after year instead of expiring to zero.

Illustrative only, not a quotation. Assumes 11.8 kWp, 1,600 kWh a month of household use, about 3.5 peak sun hours a day (15,066 kWh a year), SP Group's Q4 2026 tariff of 31.16 cents per kWh including GST held flat, an export credit of 26 cents per kWh and an installed cost of S$16,500. Real results move with the weather, shading, the roof, the household's usage and the quarterly tariff.

Why compare a COE premium and a solar system at all?

Because the comparison is really about what a six-figure sum actually buys. A COE is a pure, mandatory cost with a 10-year expiry and no return of any kind. A solar system is a one-time, competitively priced cost on an asset you keep, that earns money for you through a lower bill and an export credit from SP Group for whatever the home does not use. Nobody is suggesting a household skip buying a car. The point is that the same hard look people are giving a $139,001 number this week is worth giving to an electricity bill that, unlike a COE, never goes down on its own.

Who is already making that switch?

Fully satisfied customers, mostly. Chris compared several contractors before choosing Hao Solar and called the quote "the most competitive and comprehensive," with the job done within 1.5 weeks. Ailene had her system "completed within a week," seamless and fast from the first panel to the last. These are the same homeowners who, watching both COE premiums and electricity tariffs climb for years, decided the smarter large purchase was the one that pays for itself instead of expiring.

Does solar help with the cost of running a car after the COE?

Indirectly, yes. The COE itself is fixed no matter what a household does, but what the car costs to run afterwards is not. Pair a solar system with an EV charger, both installed by the same Hao Solar crew on the same visit, and a car charged at home from your own roof during the day costs a lot less per kilometre than one charged entirely off the grid. Daytime charging also raises how much of the roof's output the home uses itself, which is worth more than exporting it and shortens the payback period. It does not touch the COE bill, but it is the one part of total car ownership cost a homeowner can actually bring down, done within days rather than months.

How do you get started?

Run your own numbers on the calculator on this site, or book a free site survey directly. Every quotation is valid for 30 days, payment is split into milestones so nothing is paid up front for work not yet done, and the installation itself is done within days — not the months-long wait that comes with almost everything else attached to owning a car in Singapore right now.