At the end of September 2017, the stock of licensed motor vehicles stood at 369,261 up by 3.7 per cent over the corresponding quarter in 2016, the NSO said today.

Motor Vehicles: Q3/2017

Administrative data obtained from Transport Malta show that, at the end of September this year, the stock of licensed motor vehicles stood at 369,261. Of these, 78.5 per cent of the total stock of licensed vehicles were passenger cars, 13.5 per cent were commercial vehicles, 6.9 per cent were motorcycles/ quads and ATV’s, while buses and minibuses accounted for less than one per cent. During this quarter the stock of licensed vehicles has increased at a net average rate of 41 vehicles per day.

New licences

New licences issued during the period under review amounted to 6,514. The majority of new licences (4,814 or 73.9 per cent of the total) were issued to passenger cars, followed by motorcycles with 882.

Newly-licensed ‘new’ motor vehicles amounted to 2,721, or 41.8 per cent of the total, and newly licensed ‘used’ motor vehicles totalled 3,793. An average of 71 vehicles per day were newly licensed during the quarter under review.

Out of action

During the quarter under review 6,522 vehicles were taken off the roads due to a restriction. Out of these, 41.9 per cent were put for resale, 29.0 per cent were scrapped, the majority being passenger cars while 26.7 per cent were garaged. Conversely, vehicles which had their restriction ending during the third quarter of this year totalled 3,721. The majority were marked as resale (2,516) and garaged

(1,167).

Engine type

As at the end of September this year, 223,331 vehicles, or 60.5 per cent of the total, had petrol engines. Vehicles with diesel engines reached 143,530, or 38.9 per cent of the total.