An average of 58 newly licensed motor vehicles took to Malta’s roads every day during the last three months of 2020, statistics published by the National Statistics Office show.

By the end of December 2020, the stock of licensed motor vehicles stood at 402,427 – an increase of 1,841 vehicles over the previous quarter, which was the first quarter where the number of vehicles on Malta’s roads exceeded 400,000.

Out of this total, 76.6% were passenger cars, 13.9% 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 quarter under review, the stock of licensed motor vehicles increased at a net average rate of 20 motor vehicles per day.

Newly licensed motor vehicles put on the road during the period under review amounted to 5,373. The majority of the newly licensed motor vehicles, 3,814 or 71% of the total, were passenger cars, followed by goods carrying vehicles with 725 or 13.5%.

Newly licensed ‘new’ motor vehicles amounted to 1,949 or 36.3% of the total, whereas newly licensed ‘used’ motor vehicles totalled 3,424 or 63.7%.

An average of 58 motor vehicles per day were newly licensed during the quarter under review.

During the fourth quarter of 2020, 7,946 motor vehicles were taken off the road due to a restriction. Out of these, 38.3% were garaged, 32.8% were put up for resale, while scrapped motor vehicles amounted to 27% of the total. Motor vehicles that had their restriction ending during the quarter under review totalled 4,156.

The majority were recorded as being resold (59%) or garaged (40.2%).

As at the end of December 2020, 238,510 motor vehicles or 59.3% of the total had petrol-powered engines. Diesel-powered motor vehicles reached 156,131 or 38.8% of the total. Electric and hybrid motor vehicles accounted for 1.5% of the entire stock, with a total of 6,017 motor vehicles.

When compared to the previous quarter, increases of 15.6%, 10.5% and 8% were registered in the Hybrid(Electric/Diesel), Hybrid (Electric/Petrol) and Electric motor vehicles respectively.