372,000 vehicles in Malta as of end 2017, 36 new cars a day

Less than 1% of vehicles were electric or hybrid as of end 2017

There were more than 372,000 licensed vehicles in Malta as of end 2017
There were more than 372,000 licensed vehicles in Malta as of end 2017

There were 372,061 licensed motor vehicles in Malta as of December 2017, more than 78% of which were passenger cars.

Data obtained from Transport Malta and released by the National Statistics Office showed that there had been an increase of 3.7% in the amount of vehicles when compared to the same quarter in 2016, or a total yearly increase of 36 vehicles per day throughout 2017.

Slightly less than 14% of vehicles were commercial ones, almost 7% were motorcycles, quadricycles or all-terrain vehicles, while less than 1% were buses and minibuses.

The statistics show that almost 5,900 new licenses were issued during the last quarter of last year, 75% of which were for passenger cars, followed by good-carrying vehicles.

Slightly less than 40% of new licenses were for brand new vehicles, while the rest were for used vehicles.

Of the almost 6,700 vehicles taken off the roads in the period under review, due to some restriction or other, around 40% were put up for re-sale, 30% garaged and around 28% scrapped.

Type of fuel/power

As of the end of last year, slightly above 60% of vehicles had petrol engines, with 39% running on diesel.

There were 388 electric cars, 867 hybrid electric/petrol or electric/diesel cars, 62 LPG/gas cars and 1,237 combined petrol/LPG or diesel/LPG cars - in total accounting for less than 1% of all vehicles on the road.