Renew the COE, or sell up and buy something else, costed over 10 years — the full term of a renewed COE, so that each option is judged on money actually spent rather than on what it would hand back if you stopped partway. Shorten the horizon to 60 months and a 5-year renewal joins the comparison, where it ties with a 10-year one: LTA refunds the unused part of a longer premium, which makes the term a question of cash rather than of cost. Every result is calculated from the numbers you enter, and nothing is guessed or predicted. The one figure fetched for you is the current COE premium, from LTA’s published bidding results.
This compares three options over one horizon. Five years is the default because a 5-year renewal cannot be extended, so it is the longest window in which all three are genuinely comparable.
Assumed to be your COE expiry date.
What the car costs to run now, and what it is worth if you let it go.
Fills in the log card side: engine, motor rating, power output, COE category and fuel economy. Your dates, ARF and values are left alone.
9 years 11 months old at the decision date.
From your log card. PARF works out at $2,500.
What a dealer or exporter pays for the car itself, on top of PARF.
If you keep it: what the body is worth in 10 years, once the renewed COE has run out and only the car itself is left.
Settlement figure today, not the sum of remaining instalments.
From your log card. Road tax follows from it. Set it to 0 to type the tax yourself, which is what diesel owners need: diesel pays a special tax LTA quotes separately.
Hybrids only, from the log card beside engine capacity. LTA charges a petrol-electric car whichever of the two figures is higher. Leave at 0 for a plain petrol or diesel car.
From your log card, and not the same thing as the rating above. Only used to work out your COE category, which needs at most 1,600cc and 97kW for Cat A.
Worked out from LTA's road tax schedule, before any age surcharge. Set the engine capacity to 0 to enter an exact figure instead.
Routine servicing and consumables.
Age-related repairs, kept separate from routine servicing.
Charged annually once the car passes ten years, biennially before that.
One-off jobs you already expect: a traction battery, suspension, transmission, a set of tyres. Without these an older car always looks cheaper than it is.
Enter the OneMotoring figure to use it instead of the ARF calculation. Leave at 0 to derive it. Cars registered from February 2023 are capped ($60,000, or $30,000 from February 2026), so check the real figure.
A 5-year renewal costs half the PQP and cannot be renewed again — the car must be deregistered at the end, and few buyers want a car nobody can renew. A 10-year renewal costs the full PQP and can be renewed again, which is worth something this calculator does not price.
The three-month moving average for your category, not the latest bidding result. Bundled figures are Cat A $125,646 and Cat B $127,835 as at August 2026; check yours against OneMotoring if the line below is missing.
Leave at 0 to use the deregistration floor: the unused COE rebate plus body value. An open-market sale usually beats it.
Enter the all-in transaction price you would actually pay, rather than trying to rebuild it from ARF, VES and COE.
Price, OMV, power and consumption as at August 2026. A quoted price moves with every COE exercise, so get a real one. Your loan, trade-in and dates are left alone.
Leave at 0 to use the deregistration floor: the unused COE premium plus any PARF. That is what LTA hands back, not what a buyer would pay, so it is deliberately the worst case. If its COE expires before then, value it as a car you have already renewed.
Accessories, charger installation, anything outside the quoted price.
Used only to check the MAS loan limit: 70% up to $20,000 OMV, 60% above.
After the VES rebate and any EV incentive, which is what PARF is a percentage of. It is small on an electric car and that is real: the rebates come off the ARF and cannot take it below zero.
The premium paid for this car's COE. The unused part comes back pro rata if it is deregistered early.
What a dealer or exporter pays for the car itself, on top of the refunds. Left at 0, which is what makes the figure above a floor.
From your log card. Road tax follows from it, including the $700 a year flat component every electric car pays.
From your log card, and not the same thing as the rating above. Only used to work out your COE category, which needs at most 1,600cc and 97kW for Cat A.
Worked out from LTA's road tax schedule, before any age surcharge. Set the power rating to 0 to enter an exact figure instead.
Routine servicing and consumables.
Age-related repairs, kept separate from routine servicing.
Charged annually once the car passes ten years, biennially before that.
One-off jobs you already expect: a traction battery, suspension, transmission, a set of tyres. Without these an older car always looks cheaper than it is.
Everything below defaults to zero, which means results are in plain nominal dollars.
Adds a present-value figure alongside the nominal total.
Return you would otherwise earn. Reported separately, never folded into the headline.
Over 10 years, on your assumptions
That is $91,242 less than the next best, BYD Atto 3 Extended Range (100kW). Check it against the Kind and Harsh cases below before treating it as settled.
Renew COE 5 years cannot be compared over 10 years
A 5-year renewal ends at month 60, so past that point it is not a plan for the whole horizon: it is a plan for half of it, followed by having no car. Leaving it in the table would put a figure covering five years beside figures covering 10, and the short one always looks cheaper. It has been left out entirely rather than shown as a saving.
To weigh it up, set the horizon back to 60 months, where all three cover the same ground. Renewing for five and then buying something else at year five is a real plan, but it needs the price of that second car, which this calculator does not ask for yet.
Exactly the numbers you entered.
| Option | Renew COE 10 yearscheapest | BYD Atto 3 Extended Range (100kW) |
|---|---|---|
| Net cost over the horizonEverything paid out, less what you get back and what the car is still worth. | $201,808 | $293,050 |
| Effective monthly cost | $1,682/mth | $2,442/mth |
| Cost per km | $1.35/km | $1.95/km |
| Cash needed on day one | $127,835 | $243,388 |
| Biggest year of cash out | $135,161 | $248,335 |
| Total cash out | $203,808 | $298,607 |
| Money back for your current carIts PARF rebate, any unused COE, and what a dealer or exporter pays for the body. Only an option that actually lets the car go collects this, which is why the renewals show nothing. It is not the replacement car's own rebate: that is years away and sits inside what you expect that car to be worth at the end. | $0 | $5,500 |
| Financing interest | $0 | $0 |
| Running costs | $75,973 | $49,719 |
| Worth at the end | $2,000 | $57 |
| Loan still owed at the end | $0 | $0 |
| Difference against the cheapest | — | +$91,242 |
The last step credits what each car is still worth. A line that finishes lowest may still have been the most expensive to carry along the way.
Each line solves for the point where two options cost the same, holding everything else as you entered it.
At what PQP does renewing stop making sense?
Renew COE 10 years is cheaper while the PQP stays below about $219,100; above that, BYD Atto 3 Extended Range (100kW) wins. You entered $127,835.
| Line | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 | Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 | Year 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renewal, purchase, fees and settlement | $127,835 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Road tax | $682 | $750 | $818 | $886 | $955 | $1,023 | $1,023 | $1,023 | $1,023 | $1,023 |
| Insurance | $1,400 | $1,400 | $1,400 | $1,400 | $1,400 | $1,400 | $1,400 | $1,400 | $1,400 | $1,400 |
| Servicing | $900 | $900 | $900 | $900 | $900 | $900 | $900 | $900 | $900 | $900 |
| Repairs | $1,500 | $1,500 | $1,500 | $1,500 | $1,500 | $1,500 | $1,500 | $1,500 | $1,500 | $1,500 |
| Fuel or charging | $2,808 | $2,808 | $2,808 | $2,808 | $2,808 | $2,808 | $2,808 | $2,808 | $2,808 | $2,808 |
| Inspection | $36 | $72 | $72 | $72 | $72 | $72 | $72 | $72 | $72 | $72 |
| Net cash for the year | $135,161 | $7,430 | $7,499 | $7,567 | $7,635 | $7,703 | $7,703 | $7,703 | $7,703 | $7,703 |
| Running total | $135,161 | $142,592 | $150,090 | $157,657 | $165,292 | $172,995 | $180,698 | $188,402 | $196,105 | $203,808 |
Loan principal is cash leaving your account, not a cost: it is matched by the drawdown above it. Only interest and fees make financing more expensive than paying cash.
| Line | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 | Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 | Year 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renewal, purchase, fees and settlement | $248,888 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Road tax | $1,502 | $1,502 | $1,502 | $1,502 | $1,502 | $1,502 | $1,502 | $1,502 | $1,502 | $1,502 |
| Insurance | $1,600 | $1,600 | $1,600 | $1,600 | $1,600 | $1,600 | $1,600 | $1,600 | $1,600 | $1,600 |
| Servicing | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 |
| Repairs | $300 | $300 | $300 | $300 | $300 | $300 | $300 | $300 | $300 | $300 |
| Fuel or charging | $1,045 | $1,045 | $1,045 | $1,045 | $1,045 | $1,045 | $1,045 | $1,045 | $1,045 | $1,045 |
| Inspection | $0 | $0 | $0 | $36 | $36 | $36 | $36 | $36 | $36 | $36 |
| Money received | ($5,500) | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Net cash for the year | $248,335 | $4,947 | $4,947 | $4,983 | $4,983 | $4,983 | $4,983 | $4,983 | $4,983 | $4,983 |
| Running total | $248,335 | $253,281 | $258,228 | $263,211 | $268,193 | $273,176 | $278,159 | $283,141 | $288,124 | $293,107 |
Loan principal is cash leaving your account, not a cost: it is matched by the drawdown above it. Only interest and fees make financing more expensive than paying cash.