The stock of licensed vehicles at the end of March stood at 375,041, 3.7 per cent more than in the same period in 2017.

The National Statistics Office said that Transport Malta administrative data showed that 78.3% were passenger cars, 13.6% were commercial vehicles, 7% were motorcycles/quadricycles and all terrain vehicle’s, while buses and minibuses amounted to less than one per cent.

During this quarter, the stock of licensed vehicles increased at a net average rate of 33 vehicles per day.

New licences issued during the period amounted to 6,573. The majority of new licences - 5,022 or 76.4%, were for passenger cars, followed by goods-carrying vehicles with 764 or 11.6%.

Newly-licensed ‘new’ motor vehicles amounted to 2,871 or 43.7%, whereas newly licensed ‘used’ motor vehicles totalled 3,702 or 56.3%. An average of 73 vehicles per day were newly licensed during the quarter under review.

During the first quarter, 7,531 vehicles were taken off the roads due to a restriction. Of these, 39% were put for resale, 30.8% were scrapped, and 28.1% were garaged.

Vehicles that had been previously restricted but had their restriction ending during the quarter under review totalled 3,908. The majority were recorded as being for resale (2,708) or garaged (1,163).

As at the end of March, 226,083 vehicles or 60.3% of the total, were running on petrol. Vehicles having diesel engines reached 146,192 or 39%. Electric and hybrid vehicles still accounted for less than 0.5 per cent of the entire stock, with a total of 1,426 circulating on Maltese roads.

Correction 4.15pm: A previous version of this article indicated that 33 newly licensed vehicles were added every day, when in reality it is the stock that increased by an average of 33 per day.