A total of 4,159 new vehicle licences were issued in the second quarter of this year, of which only 36.5 per cent were for new vehicles, figures issued by the NSO this morning show. The rest were newly-licensed second-hand vehicles.

The NSO said the stock of licensed motor vehicles stood at 301,605 at the end of the second quarter.

Of these, 76.4 per cent were private vehicles, while commercial vehicles accounted for 15.7 per cent.

New licences issued during the second quarter of 2010 amounted to 4,159. Private vehicles accounted for 3,281 new licences, or 78.9 per cent of the total.

The majority of new licences were issued to private vehicles falling within 'Class 1' (<1300 cc), accounting for 1,445 new licences, followed by vehicles in 'Class 5' (1801-2000 cc) with 543.

Newly-licensed 'new' motor vehicles amounted to 1,520, or 36.5 per cent of the total. A total of 2,639 ‘used’ motor vehicles were newly licensed during the quarter under review. There are been 1,280 licences for 'new' motor vehicles in the first quarter of this year and 2,506 licences for second hand vehicles.

Scrapped vehicles numbered 1,096, of which 53.9 per cent were 'Class 1' vehicles (<1300 cc). Garaged vehicles amounted to 2,279 or 66.7 per cent of the total vehicles which were no longer on the road in the period under review.