Road safety: type-approval requirements of motor vehicles

PURPOSE: to lay down harmonised rules on the construction of motor vehicles with a view to ensuring the functioning of the internal market while at the same time providing for a high level of safety and environmental protection.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

CONTENT: the technical requirements for the type-approval of motor vehicles with regard to numerous safety and environmental elements have been harmonised at Community level in order to avoid requirements that differ from one Member State to another, and to ensure a high level of road safety and environmental protection throughout the Community. New technologies are now available which can dramatically improve vehicle safety (such as Electronic Stability Control Systems) or reduce CO2 emissions (such as low rolling-resistance tyres). Research has indicated that there would be significant benefits if such technologies were introduced as standard on new vehicles. Setting common mandatory requirements would also prevent the fragmentation of the internal market which could result from varying product standards emerging across Member States.

The proposal aims at enhancing the safety of vehicles by requiring the mandatory fitting of some advanced safety features. The proposal also aims at enhancing the environmental performance of vehicles by reducing the amount of road noise and vehicle CO2 emissions from tyres. Finally, the proposal contributes to the competitiveness of the automotive industry by simplifying the existing vehicle safety type-approval legislation, improving transparency and easing administrative burden.

The draft Regulation proposes to:

• significantly simplify the type-approval legislation by replacing 50 base Directives (and around 100 related amending Directives) in the field of motor vehicle safety and tyres with one Council and Parliament Regulation.  50 Directives on the type-approval of vehicles will be repealed;
• introduce new mandatory requirements on advanced safety features. In particular, the proposal requires mandatory fitting of: (a) Electronic Stability Control Systems on all vehicles; (b) Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems on passenger cars; (c) Advanced Emergency Braking Systems and Lane Departure Warning Systems on heavy-duty vehicles. In case of voluntary fitting of Advanced Emergency Braking Systems and Lane Departure Warning Systems on other categories of vehicles, these systems shall fulfil the requirements laid down in the proposal;
• set more stringent noise emission limit values for tyres than those set out in existing legislation and introduces new requirements on wet grip and rolling resistance.