Malta's roads saw 12,000 more vehicles last year

The number of motor vehicles on Malta’s roads reached 397,508 by the end of 2019, a increase of over 12,000 compared to the previous year.

In December 2018, there were 385,326 licensed vehicles, but this rose by 3.2% by December last year, figures published by the Nationalist Statistics Office on Friday show.

Of the 397,508 vehicles, 77.3% were passenger cars, 13.7% were commercial vehicles, 7.9% were motorcycles/quadricycles and All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), while buses and minibuses amounted to less than 1%.

During the last three months of 2019, the stock of licensed motor vehicles increased at a net average rate of 28 vehicles per day.

Over 6,000 vehicles newly licensed in fourth quarter of 2019

Newly licensed vehicles put on the road in the last three months of last year amounted to 6,154.

The majority of the newly licensed vehicles - 4,167 or 67.7% of the total - were passenger cars, followed by motorcycles, with 996 or 16.2%.

Newly licensed ‘“new” vehicles amounted to 2,519 or 40.9% of the total, whereas newly licensed “used” motor vehicles totalled 3,635 or 59.1%.

An average of 67 vehicles per day were newly licensed during Q4 of 2019.

During the final three months of last year, 6,941 vehicles were taken off the road due to a restriction. Out of these, 35.0% were garaged, 34.2% were put up for resale, while scrapped vehicles amounted to 28.8% of the total.

Vehicles that had their restriction ending during the quarter under review totalled 3,401.

The majority were recorded as being resold (67.2%) or garaged (32.1%t)

Electric or hybrid vehicles account for 1.1% of total

By the end of December 2019, 236,892 vehicles or 59.6% of the total had petrol-powered engines.

Diesel-powered vehicles reached 154,459 or 38.9% of the total. Electric and hybrid vehicles accounted for only 1.1% of the entire stock, with a total of 4,493.

However, when compared to the same period of 2018, increases of 147.6%, 64.7% and 52.4% were registered in the number of electric, hybrid/diesel and hybrid/petrol-powered vehicles.