Electric Car Island? Malta Outpacing Europe As 1,400 Vehicles Now On The Road
Malta will become one of the first European countries to seriously shift to electric cars if Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is to be believed.
And while such a plan sounds incredibly lofty, there are early signs that the island could well be an early adopter.
Recent statistics show that 4,139 new vehicles were added to Malta’s roads in the second quarter of the year, the vast majority (77%) of which were passenger cars.
Out of these, 1,416 were petrol-powered and 699 were diesel-powered, 84% of the total, while 5% were electric, 9% were hybrid and 2% were classified as ‘other’.
While this may seem like a pretty low number, it is actually double the average rate in Europe, in which electric cars represented only 2.5% of all vehicles sold in 2018.
There are now 852 electric cars in Malta, and 1,422 electric vehicles in total.
In the coming years, Malta is set to introduce a cut-off date for the importation of petrol and diesel cars, after which all new cars will have to be electric. The bus fleet will also become electric, while charging points will be installed across the island.
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