The total number of newly licensed vehicles in Malta dropped by nearly 3,000 in 2012, over the previous year.

Last year a total of 16,162 new licenses were handed out compared with the 19,041 in 2011. A report by the National Statistics Office revealed that at the end of last year, Malta had a total of 314,510 licensed motor vehicles 79% of which were passenger cars. The NSO report also revealed that the total number of scrapped motor vehicles skyrocketed by almost 3,000 to 9,870 in 2012 from 2011.

The number of newly licensed second-hand vehicles is on a downward trend, registering 2,300 less licenses over the previous year. Fuel usage reports indicate that 61% of the vehicles run on petrol, whilst 39% opted for the diesel version.

At the end of the 4th quarter of 2012, 14.5% of all licensed vehicles were commercial vehicles, whilst 5% were motorcycles. Over 1,000 minibuses operate in the Maltese islands, with just over 300 private coaches.