By the end of June 2018, the stock of licensed motor vehicles stood at 379,338, an increase of 3.8 per cent over the same quarter in 2017, the NSO said today.

Administrative data provided by Transport Malta shows that, by the end of June this year, the stock of licensed motor vehicles stood at 379,338. Out of this total, 78.1 per cent were passenger cars, 13.6 per cent were commercial vehicles, 7.2 per cent were motorcycles/quadricycles and All Terrain Vehicles (ATV), while buses and minibuses amounted to less than one per cent.

During this quarter, the stock of licensed vehicles increased at a net average rate of 47 vehicles per day.

New licences issued during the period under review amounted to 7,069. With 5,115 (or 72.4 per cent of total) the majority of new licences were issued for passenger cars. This was followed by motorcycles/ebicycles with 999 new licences or 14.1 per cent. Newly-licensed ‘new’ motor vehicles amounted to 3,197 or 45.2 per cent of the total, whereas newly licensed ‘used’ motor vehicles totalled 3,872 or 54.8 per cent.

An average of 78 vehicles per day were newly licensed during the quarter under review.

During the second quarter of this year, 7,084 vehicles were taken off the roads due to a restriction. Out of these, 37.0 per cent were put for resale, 31.9 per cent were scrapped, while garaged vehicles amounted to 28.3 per cent. Vehicles that had their restriction ending during the quarter under review totalled 4,249. The majority were recorded as being for resale (2,662) or garaged (1,549).

As at the end of June this year, 228,574 vehicles (or 60.3 per cent of the total), were running on petrol only engines, while vehicles having diesel only engines reached 147,738 (or 38.9 per cent of the total). Electric and hybrid vehicles still accounted for less than 0.5 per cent of the entire stock, with a total of g 1,636 vehicles.