News

090330

Individual Vehicle Approval - IVA

The work with the IVA in the Commission is delayed. The IVA will come into force in the 28th of February 2010.

The new definition of a new car was agreed in the Commission:

“For the purposes of vehicle approval in application of Article 24, a vehicle is
deemed to be new if it has never been registered previously or if it has been
registered for less than six months at the time of the application for individual
approval.
By registration, it is meant that the vehicle has obtained the administrative
authorisation for entry into service in road traffic, involving its identification
and the issuing of a registration number.
This concerns vehicles that were subject to permanent, temporary or short-term
registration [and vehicles that were subject to professional registration].”

For more info se the Commissions hompage.

 

081110

Individual Vehicle Approval - IVA

The import of  new American cars to Europe is threaten.

From the 29th of April 2009 new cars has to be approved by the new directive 2007/46/EC. Used cars will still be approved by national regulations that is different from country to country in EU.
A car is considered used when it has been registered in 6 month in a third country like USA or Canada.

Right now there is a work going on in the European Commission regarding the new directive. In the Commissions technical working group they are now trying to decide which the technical requirements an American car has to fulfill to be approved in EU. The technical working group is made up of representatives from the road authorities of each EU countries.

We hope that a vehicle fulfilling similartechnical requirements, with the same intention as those of the EC, can be accepted in such an individual approval. Thus a vehicle tested and approved based on North American requirements in FMVSS and CMVSS should also be approved in the EC.

The problem is that many countries are against approval of American cars. Sweden is the most liberal country in this issue.
Austria has come up with a proposal that the technical group is working with.   

The Swedish enterprise ministry has stated the following:
“There are good reasons to accept the import of vehicles from a third country to a larger extent than what is being done today. Even if for example the legal framework of the USA is different from the EC in many terms, there is no doubt that new vehicles manufactured for the American market fulfill very high standards of road safetyand environmental protection. Any reason to deny registration based on road safety and/or environmental protection does not exist. Even out of commercial policyreasons such a refusal would be hard to motivate, especially since there has traditionally been a positive attitude towards for example amateur builtvehicles from a Swedish point of view. In a time of increased globalization, it is natural that consumers be given reasonable opportunities to choose vehicles that fit precisely their needs, no matter where the vehicle has been manufactured.”

“The purpose of the technical requirements for vehicles is at first hand to secure a high level of road safety, health protection and environmental protection, energy efficacy and protection towards unauthorized  use. To loosen up these principalsjust to facilitate easier import from a third country is not being considered. But what one can consider is however to accept a vehicle fulfilling similarrequirementswith the same intention. It could for example be emission control requirements that have been created from other criteria than the EC's criteria, differently formularized crash tests, etc.”

“In this context it can be worth to note that the rulesabout individual approval i the new frame directive do not open up for the possibility of deviating from the obligatory rules about vehicles constructionand equipment that are set in the Vienna convention, which Sweden is tied up to. However, Sweden should work towards getting an amendment in the Vienna convention (UN ECE-regulations), so that vehicles won't have to be denied registration just on the basis of them having the wrong color of theturn lights.”

We are doing all we can to make a difference. Our goal is that the EC accepts the FMVSS and CMVSS for the IVA.
Our worry is that EU authorities create regulations that are impossible and/or too expensive and/or too time consuming to comply with.

We have been in contact with some of the U.S.  embassies around EU. We hope that the U.S. Embassies in the other EU countries will write to their respective road authorities and express their concern that the import of new American vehicles is being threatened.

We need all help we can get in this issue. It´s getting really urgent, the technical group have to finish their work soon.