Malta's vehicle population reaches 379,000

By the end of June this year, the stock of licensed motor vehicles stood at 379,338, figures out today show.

During the first six months of the year, the National Statistics Office said an average of 47 new vehicles a day were added to Malta's roads. 

Passenger cars accounted for 78.1% of the total stock,  while 13.6% were commercial vehicles. Motorcycles made up 7.2% and buses and minibuses amounted to less than one per cent.

New licences issued during the period under review amounted to 7,069. With 5,115 (72.4 %), the majority of new licences were issued for passenger cars. This was followed by motorcycles/e- bicycles with 999 new licences.

Newly-licensed ‘new’ motor vehicles amounted to 3,197 (45.2%), whereas newly licensed ‘used’ motor vehicles totalled 3,872 (54.8%). 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% were put for resale, 31.9% were scrapped, while garaged vehicles amounted to 28.3%. 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 (60.3%), were running on petrol only engines, while vehicles having diesel only engines reached 147,738 (38.9%). Electric and hybrid vehicles still accounted for less than 0.5% of the entire stock, with a total of 1,636 vehicles.