There were 321,425 licenced motor vehicles at the end of September, 0.8 per cent more than in the previous quarter, the National Statistics Office said.

Of these, 79.3 per cent were passenger cars, 14.4 per cent commercial vehicles and 5.2 per cent motorcycles. Buses and minibuses accounted for less than one per cent.

A total of 4,334 new licences were issued during the period. The majority of - 3,437 or 79.3 per cent of the total - were issued for passenger cars, followed by motorcycles (451).

Newly-licensed ‘new’ motor vehicles amounted to 1,923, or 44.4 per cent of the total, and newly licensed ‘used’ motor vehicles totalled 2,411.

In the third quarter, 52 vehicles were exported. There were 1,535 vehicles that were no longer licensed for use on the road and another 1,211 were scrapped.

As at the end of September, 195,862 vehicles, (60.9 per cent) of the total, had petrol engines. Diesel engines powered 124,931 vehicles (38.9 per cent).