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Cyprus Sees Robust Growth In Motor Vehicle Registrations Amid Shift To Hybrid And Electric

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

February 9, 2026

Cyprus commenced 2026 with solid momentum in its automotive sector, underscored by a marked 6.7 percent increase in motor vehicle registrations in January, according to data from Cystat. The positive figures reflect a deepening market transformation as consumers increasingly pivot toward cleaner, hybrid, and electric vehicles.

Market Performance Overview

A total of 4,350 vehicles were registered in January 2026, compared with 4,077 a year earlier. The figures point to continued demand across the sector, even as the industry adapts to changing fuel technologies and evolving mobility trends.

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Passenger Car Trends And Shifts

Registrations of passenger saloon cars increased by 4.5 percent to 3,317 units, up from 3,173 in January 2025. New vehicles accounted for 39 percent of registrations, or 1,294 units, while used cars made up the remaining 61 percent with 2,023 registrations. In contrast, rental saloon registrations declined sharply by 22.8 percent to 159 units.

Changing Fuel Dynamics

Fuel preferences also continued to shift. The share of petrol-powered passenger cars fell from 42.5 percent to 35.8 percent year on year. Diesel vehicles edged slightly higher, moving from 8.1 percent to 8.4 percent. Electric vehicles expanded their presence from 5.6 percent to 6.9 percent, while hybrid cars strengthened their lead, rising from 43.8 percent to 48.8 percent of new registrations.

Commercial And Two-Wheeler Segments

Activity was mixed in the commercial vehicle segment. Motor coaches and buses rose to 23 registrations from 7 a year earlier. Heavy goods vehicles increased by 43.8 percent to 69 units, while light goods vehicles grew by 16 percent to 471. Road tractors also recorded an 18.8 percent rise to 19 units. Rental goods vehicles, however, dropped sharply by 70 percent to just 3 registrations.

In the two-wheeler category, mopeds under 50cc declined to 6 units from 22, whereas motorcycles above 50cc climbed 13.5 percent to 387 registrations, up from 341 the previous year.

Overall, the data highlights a market that is gradually shifting toward cleaner mobility options while maintaining stable overall demand.

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Google Cloud Outage Disrupts Banking And Digital Services Across The UK

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 20, 2026

A power outage at a Google Cloud data centre near London disrupted services across the UK on Tuesday, affecting banks, businesses and other digital platforms. Google said the incident was caused by a power event at its cloud operations, with full recovery expected by around 1300 GMT.

The disruption began at 0608 GMT and affected Google Cloud services in the europe-west2 region, which is hosted in London. In an initial update, the company reported elevated error rates and intermittent network failures across multiple services as engineers worked to restore operations.

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Banking Services Hit By The Disruption

Revolut was among the most visibly affected companies, with customers reporting problems with ATM withdrawals, bank transfers and card top-ups. A source close to the matter linked the issues to the Google Cloud outage.

Traditional banks also reported disruptions. Lloyds said some customers were experiencing problems with its app and online banking, while HSBC confirmed difficulties accessing its services. HSBC added that it was monitoring the situation and noted that other organisations were affected as well.

Disruption Spreads Beyond Finance

Downdetector, which tracks online service disruptions, recorded hundreds of reports involving other businesses, including property website Rightmove and the Royal Mail postal service. The reports suggested that the outage was affecting multiple parts of the UK’s digital economy.

The incident highlights the risks facing businesses that depend on shared cloud infrastructure. Even a temporary failure at a single provider can disrupt services across several sectors, from banking and payments to logistics and consumer platforms.

Companies Reassure Customers

Revolut said it had been working to resolve the issue since it was identified and apologised to affected customers. The company also confirmed that customers’ money and data remained safe.

As cloud platforms underpin an increasing share of digital commerce, the outage illustrates how disruptions to critical infrastructure can spread far beyond the provider itself, affecting businesses and customers across the economy.