Air pollution: CO₂ emissions, fuel consumption of N1 light commercial vehicles (amend. Directives 70/156/EEC and 80/1268/EEC)

The committee adopted the report by Robert GOODWILL (EPP-ED, UK) tabling a few amendments to the Commission proposal under the codecision procedure (1st reading). Pointing to the large number of different models and derivatives of N1 vehicles available on the EU market, the committee wanted to introduce the concept of vehicle families, so that the number of variants to be tested could be reduced to manageable proportions. It therefore proposed that, for N1 vehicles powered by an internal combustion engine, it should be possible to extend type approval to vehicles of the same type and from within the same family. The latter was defined as a group of vehicles having identical or similar parameters. Identical parameters were: manufacturer, engine capacity and type, emission control system type and fuel system type. Similar parameters were: transmission overall ratios (within 8% of the lowest geared), reference mass (within 220kg of the heaviest) and frontal area (within 15% of the largest). The committee also wanted to allow for type approval to be extended to vehicles from the same type - or to vehicles with certain different characteristics (bodywork, overall gear ratios, engine equipment and accessories, etc.) - if CO2 emissions did not exceed the type approved value by more than 6%. Another amendment proposed that, where a vehicle produced by a specialist coach builder fitted within the criteria of one of the families of vehicles of the manufacturer of the base vehicle, the coach builder should be able to use the data on fuel efficiency and CO2 production supplied by that manufacturer. �