The number of licensed vehicles on Maltese roads has increase to a net average of 33 new vehicles per day, figures released by the National Statistics Office show.

By the end of March this year, the stock of licensed motor vehicles stood at 375,041. Out of this total, 78.3 per cent were passenger cars, 13.6 per cent were commercial vehicles, 7.0 per cent were motorcycles/quadricycles and All Terrain Vehicle’s (ATV), while buses and minibuses amounted to less than one per cent.

Last week, information released by Eurostat revealed that Malta recorded the highest increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the European Union in 2017, despite recorded the largest drop the year before.  According to statistics issued by the National Statistics Office here in Malta, in 2016 emissions from power plant sources dropped by 34.8% over 2015, mainly due to the use of the interconnector.

Eurostat estimates that in 2017, CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion increased by 1.8% in the European Union, compared with the previous year.

This situation sheds light on growing concerns regarding health and air quality in Malta, given that the country had closed down the Marsa power station in the last legislature, in addition to the Delimara 1 station, and switched over to the use of gas and the interconnector in a bid to reduce Malta’s emissions, yet now carbon dioxide emissions seem to be on the rise.

The use of electric cars remains low in the country  with Electric and hybrid vehicles still accounted for less than 0.5 per cent of the entire stock (1,426). 226,083 vehicles or 60.3 per cent of the total, were running on petrol engines. Vehicles having diesel engines reached 146,192 or 39.0 per cent of the total.

Around 6,570 new licenses have been issued since the start of the year, meaning that an average of 73 vehicles per day were newly licensed during the quarter under review.

During the first quarter of this year, 7,531 vehicles were taken off the roads due to a restriction. Out of these, 39.0 per cent were put for resale, 30.8 per cent were scrapped, while garaged vehicles amounted to 28.1 per cent. Vehicles that had their restriction ending during the quarter under review totalled 3,908.