The number of licensed vehicles on Malta’s roads has exceeded 400,000 for the first time ever, data published by the National Statistics Office shows.
This reverses, and over compensates for, the decrease in the number of cars registered in the second quarter of 2020.
At the end of September 2020, the stock of licensed motor vehicles stood at 400,586. For comparison, at the start of 2017, Malta had 361,552 vehicles registered for use on its roads.
Out of the 400,586 vehicles: 76.8% were passenger cars, 13.8% were commercial motor vehicles, 8.3% were motorcycles/quadricycles and All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), while buses and minibuses amounted to less than 1%.
During the third quarter of 2020, the stock of licensed motor vehicles increased by an average rate of 56 vehicles per day, the NSO said.
Newly licensed motor vehicles put on the road during the period under review amounted to 5,160. The majority of the newly licensed motor vehicles, 3,490 or 67.6% of the total, were passenger cars, followed by motorcycle/Ebicycle/PA-Bicycle with 909 or 17.6%.
Newly licensed ‘new’ motor vehicles amounted to 2,329 or 45.1% of the total, whereas newly licensed ‘used’ motor vehicles totalled 2,831 or 54.9%.
During the third quarter of 2020, 6,891 motor vehicles were taken off the roads due to a restriction. Out of these, 34.4% were put up for resale, 31.2% were garaged, while scrapped motor vehicles amounted to 31.1% of the total. Motor vehicles that had their restriction ending during the quarter under review totalled 6,696.
The majority were recorded as being garaged (61.7%) or resold (36.5%).
Out of the vehicles, 237,975 – or 59.4% - had petrol-powered engines, while 155,367 – 38.8% - were diesel powered.
Electric and hybrid motor vehicles accounted for 1.4% of the entire stock, with a total of 5,495 motor vehicles. There were significant increases in this category however when compared to the previous quarter: the number of electric vehicles increased by 13.4%, the number of hybrid (electric/petrol) vehicles increased by 9.9%, and the number of hybrid (electric/diesel) vehicles increased by 8.5%.