Skip to main content

EU passes testing rules to avoid ‘Dieselgate’ repeat

The European Parliament has rubber-stamped new rules following the Volkswagen emissions scandal which seek in part to increase the quality of testing. The idea of the reforms for the type approval process is to ensure that vehicles act on the road in the way that they have been tested in laboratory conditions. The agreement, which has been two years in the making, requires national market surveillance authorities to check 1 in 40,000 vehicles registered in the country the previous year, with at least 20% o
April 24, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
The European Parliament has rubber-stamped new rules following the 994 Volkswagen emissions scandal which seek in part to increase the quality of testing. The idea of the reforms for the type approval process is to ensure that vehicles act on the road in the way that they have been tested in laboratory conditions.


The agreement, which has been two years in the making, requires national market surveillance authorities to check 1 in 40,000 vehicles registered in the country the previous year, with at least 20% of tests to be emissions-related. 1816 European Union member states will also have to provide sufficient funds for market surveillance activities and to finance type-approval activities from fees levied on manufacturers.

The 1690 European Commission (EC) will be able to carry out assessments of the procedures put in place by type-approval authorities in member states.

Transport group FIA says greater market surveillance and additional oversight by the EC will act as new checks in the system – although it points out that the revised process “fails to end the direct financial link between testers and vehicle manufacturers”.

However, it believes there will be additional transparency. “European consumers have been let down by the system that was meant to deliver cars that performed as promised in the real world,” says 8054 FIA Region I (Europe, Middle East and Africa) director general, Laurianne Krid. “The new rules should increase checks of vehicles already on the market, thus helping to restore consumer trust and confidence.”

She added: “We now need to see the Commission come forward with a dedicated legislative proposal to ensure cyber security, data protection and fair competition with accessing vehicle data.”

Related Content

  • February 1, 2012
    Include ITS in policy decisions from the start, not as an afterthought
    DG TREN's Fotis Karamitsos, on why the European Commission's new ITS Action Plan is looking to the past for future direction. The European Commission's (EC's) new Action Plan for the Deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems in Europe, which was announced as 2008 drew to a close, intends that transport and travel become 'cleaner; more efficient, including energy efficient; and safer and more secure'. At first sight, that wording might be interpreted as marking a significant policy shift within Europe, wit
  • January 25, 2019
    Colorado signs exec order to support transition to ZEVs
    Governor of Colorado Jared Polis has signed an executive order which outlines a suite of initiatives to support a transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEV) in the US state. Polis says: “Our goal is to reach 100% renewable electricity by 2040 and embrace the green energy transition already underway economy-wide” He believes the public health and environmental benefits of widespread transportation electrification will increase as the state moves towards a cleaner electric grid. The initiatives include
  • September 26, 2018
    Improve efforts to develop alternative fuels infrastructure, say MEPs
    The European Commission (EC) and member states need to ‘redouble efforts’ to boost the development of an alternative fuels infrastructure, say transport MEPs. The warning comes in a draft resolution from the Transport and Tourism Committee. Ismail Ertug, rapporteur, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, says: “Our initiative report urges the Commission to accelerate the revision of the directive, come up with strong infrastructure targets and more funding for a
  • July 23, 2012
    Improving the positional accuracy of GNSS road user charging
    The European GINA project is intended to address and overcome many of the institutional, technical and public acceptance hurdles currently faced by satellite-based road user charging schemes. Dave Tindall and Denis Naberezhnykh, TRL, and Laure Dezes, ERF, write. Pay-as-you-drive Road User Charging (RUC), whereby demand (or congestion) is managed by applying appropriate tariffs in order to encourage drivers to make their journeys at less busy times, on less congested routes or even on different modes, could