The stock of licensed motor vehicles at the end of March stood at 361,552, up by 0.7% over the previous quarter.

The National Statistics Office said that according to administrative data obtained by Transport Malta, 78.8% were passenger cars, 13.5% commercial vehicles, 6.5% motorcycles, while buses and minibuses accounted for less than one per cent.

During this quarter, the stock of licensed vehicles increased at an average of 29 per day.

New licences issued in the first three months of the year amounted to 6,037. The majority of new licences (4,746 or 78.6%) were issued to passenger cars, followed by goods-carrying vehicles with 650.

Newly-licensed ‘new’ motor vehicles amounted to 2,722 or 45.1% of the total, and newly licensed ‘used’ motor vehicles totalled 3,315. During the first quarter of 2017, an average of 67 vehicles were newly licensed per day.

At the end of March this year, 218,995 vehicles or 60.6% of the total had petrol engines.

Vehicles with diesel engines reached 140,478, or 38.9% of the total.