The stock of licensed motor vehicles in the fourth quarter last year increased by 12,182 vehicles, or 3.2% over the same quarter in 2018, increasing at a net average rate of 28 vehicles per day, the National Statistics Office said.

An average of 67 vehicles per day were newly licensed during the quarter under review.

The stock of licensed motor vehicles stood at 397,508 at the end of December. Out of this total, 77.3% were passenger cars, 13.7% were commercial vehicles, 7.9% were motorcycles/ quadricycles and All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), while buses and minibuses amounted to less than 1%.

The NSO noted that newly licensed vehicles put on the road during the period under review amounted to 6,154.

It said that the majority of the newly licensed vehicles, 4,167 or 67.7% of the total, were passenger cars, followed by motorcycles with 996 or 16.2%.

Newly licensed ‘new’ motor vehicles amounted to 2,519 or 40.9% of the total, whereas newly licensed ‘used’ motor vehicles totalled 3,635 or 59.1%.

During the fourth quarter last year, 6,941 vehicles were taken off the road due to a restriction. The NSO said that out of these, 35.0% were garaged, 34.2% were put up for resale, while scrapped vehicles amounted to 28.8% of the total.

The NSO went on to say that vehicles that had their restriction ending during the quarter under review totalled 3,401. The majority were recorded as being resold (67.2%) or garaged (32.1%).

As at the end of December, 236,892 vehicles or 59.6% of the total had petrol-powered engines. The NSO said that diesel-powered vehicles reached 154,459 or 38.9% of the total. Electric and hybrid vehicles accounted for 1.1% of the entire stock, with a total of 4,493 vehicles.

The NSO added that when compared to the same period of 2018, increases of 147.6%, 64.7% and 52.4% were registered in the electric, hybrid/diesel and hybrid/petrol-powered vehicles.

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