A total of 55 cars a day were added to our streets  in the first quarter of this year, as the stock of licensed motor vehicles rose to 404,303, a whopping increase of 29,262 cars in just three years.

The stock of licensed motor vehicles increased by 1,876 in the first quarter of 2021, when compared to the same period last year, official statistics released on Tuesday show.

Out of this total, 76.5 per cent were passenger cars, 13.9 per cent were commercial motor vehicles, 8.5 per cent were motorcycles/quadricycles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), while buses and minibuses amounted to less than one per cent.

Newly-licensed motor vehicles put on the road during the period under review amounted to 4,921. A total of 67.2 per cent were passenger cars, followed by motorcycle/Ebicycle/PA-Bicycle with 970 or 19.7 per cent.

Newly-licensed ‘new’ motor vehicles amounted to 2,241 of the total, whereas newly-licensed ‘used’ motor vehicles totalled 2,680 or 54.5 per cent. 

Electric/hybrid make up 1.7% of stock

During the first quarter of 2021, 7,513 motor vehicles were taken off the road due to a restriction. Out of these, 35.2 per cent were put up for resale, 33.7 per cent were garaged, while scrapped motor vehicles amounted to 29.6
per cent of the total.

Motor vehicles that had their restriction ending during the quarter under review totalled 4,422.

The majority were recorded as being resold (56.2 per cent) or garaged (43.1 per cent).

As at the end of March, 239,401 motor vehicles or 59.2 per cent of the total had petrol-powered engines. Diesel-powered motor vehicles reached 156,139 or 38.6 per cent of the total.

Electric and hybrid motor vehicles accounted for 1.7 per cent of the entire stock, with a total of 6,993 motor vehicles.

Compared to the previous quarter, increases of 21.5 per cent, 14.6 per cent and 12.3 per cent were registered in the electric, hybrid vehicles respectively.