The number of newly licensed motor vehicles has declined for the first time since the beginning of 2014, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

In a statement the NSO said a total 5,445 new licences were issued in the fourth quarter of last year: 4,360 were for passenger cars and 528 for motorcycles. The figure marks a slight decrease over the third quarter of 2015 which had seen 5,571 newly licensed vehicles hit the roads.

Around four-fifths of vehicles on Maltese roads are passenger cars, and 14 per cent are commercial vehicles used by local businesses. Despite an increase in the bus fleet and public transport usage last year, public transport vehicles and minibuses accounted for less than one per cent of vehicles on the road.

Despite an increase in the bus fleet and public transport use last year, public transport vehicles accounted for less than1% of vehicles on the road

In last year’s budget the government came out with a scheme to urge motorists to purchase small motorcycles in a bid to ease traffic. Just six per cent of registered vehicles last year were motorcycles. Maltese petrol heads appear to be aptly named as at the end of December, 210,289 vehicles, around two thirds of the total, had petrol engines.

There were 246 electric cars on Maltese roads at the end of last year, but the number of hybrid vehicles was double. More than 20 vehicles still used paraffin engines.

The transport watchdog last year added some 20 electric cars to its fleet. Several companies have introduced hybrid and electric vehicles as part of their commercial vehicle fleet.

In the fourth quarter of last year, 106 vehicles were exported. Garaged vehicles amounted to 2,139, while scrapped vehicles totalled 3,431, the NSO said.