4,000 new vehicles joined Malta’s roads in third quarter, NSO figures show

There were 436,000 licensed motor vehicles on Malta’s roads by end September, an increase of almost 4,000 over the previous quarter, figures out today show.

The National Statistics Office said 74% of all licensed vehicles were passenger cars, 14% commercial and agricultural vehicles, and 11% motorcycles, e-bikes, scooters and quad bikes. Buses and minibuses amounted to less than one per cent.

The increase in new registrations amounts to an average rate per day of 69 vehicles. The majority of the new vehicles were passenger cars (56%) followed by motorcycles with 18%.

Petrol-powered engines accounted for 58%, followed by diesel-powered engines, and electric and plug-in hybrid engines at 35.9% and 3.7% respectively.

Compared to the second quarter of 2023, increases of 21%, 13% and 11% were registered in plug-in hybrid, electric and combined motor vehicles respectively.

Passenger cars

A breakdown of statistics shows that from a total of 322,387 passenger cars, 210,525 have petrol engines while 94,939 have diesel engines.

There are 3,788 electric passenger cars, 3,743 plug-in hybrid cars (petrol-electric) and just 41 diesel-electric plug-in hybrid cars. Mild hybrid cars account for 7,146 (petrol-electric) and 306 (diesel-electric). Five cars run on LPG, while a further 1,894 have combined LPG-petrol/diesel engines.