Total motor vehicles sales for the period of January to August rose by an annual 16% with saloon cars sales increasing by 13%, including rising sales of EV and hybrid cars, data published on Monday by Cystat show.

Total registrations of motor vehicles increased by 15,9% to 34,391 in January-August 2024, from 29,673 in the respective period of last year.

According to Cystat, passenger saloon cars increased to 26,902 from 23,777 in January-August 2023, recording a rise of 13.1%, while of the total passenger saloon cars, 10,963 or 40.8% were new and 15,939 or 59.2% were second hand.

Rental cars in particular recorded a fall of 27,8% to 3.180.

Furthermore, the share of petrol-powered passengers’ cars to the total of this category of vehicles decreased in January-August 2024 to 50.1% (from 59.8% in the corresponding period of the preceding year) and that of diesel-powered cars to 9.9% in 2024 from 10.2% in 2023.

The share of electric cars rose from 2,4% in 2023 to 3.3% in 2024 and of hybrid cars from 27.5% to 36.8%, Cystat added.