ACEA

Auto industry supports harmonisation of safety regulation

The European auto industry welcomes the simplifying of safety regulation as a matter of principle, but cautions that it is unclear at this stage if the proposals of the European Commission, published on 23 May, will achieve that goal.

The simplifying of regulation was one of the core recommendations of the CARS21 process, which aimed at improving the European automotive industry’s competitiveness while continuing progress in the fields of road safety and protection of the environment. These recommendations were made in 2005.

The auto industry therefore appreciates that the Commission has drafted proposals to simplify car safety regulations, but stresses that many details still remain unclear: they will de dealt with in the so-called comitology procedure, or ‘implementing measures’, which will only be defined afterwards. It is these measures that will be decisive for the actual improvement and simplification of the type approval of vehicles. Every vehicle that enters onto market needs to be type-approved first, and meet a long list of requirements and tests.

The proposal will now be reviewed by the European Parliament and the Council, which have the final say. The auto industry stresses that, in order to simplify legislation, the option of regulation and standardisation within UN/ECE should be fully explored. UN/ECE is the body that oversees the international standardisation and regulation of requirements.

The automotive industry is one of the most regulated sectors in the EU, with more than 85 EU directives and at least 115 UN/ECE rulings applying. Most regulations are very technical in nature. The so-called type approval of cars involves meeting a lot of detailed requirements and tests, which all take time and investments. To ensure competitiveness, it is important that regulation is adequate and least complicated as possible.

Road safety: a key priority
In addition to the attempted simplifying of existing legislation, the Commission also proposes new legislation on advanced safety features. In particular, the proposal requires mandatory fitting of:

• Electronic Stability Control Systems on all vehicles (by 29 October 2012 for new models, and 29 October 2014 for all new vehicles);
• Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems on passenger cars (comparable timeframe);
• Automatic Emergency Braking Systems and Lane Departure Warning Systems on commercial vehicles (proposed entry into force by 29 October 2013/2015).

Thirdly, the proposal sets 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.

Improving road safety is one of the car industry’s key priorities and often, regulation is following innovation. The industry has developed ESC, for example, and is bringing it to market at a steady pace. The industry takes active part in the ‘ChooseESC’ campaign of the European Commission to increase consumer awareness of the benefits of this technology. It will take some time for ESC to arrive in all new cars, as is the case with all new technologies, and depending on production cycles and model policy. Also, alignment with UN/ECE standardisation is essential.

Other technologies have only more recently been developed and are currently introduced by the manufacturers. Therefore, before mandating new safety requirements like Automatic Emergency Braking Systems and Lane Departure Warning Systems, a proper impact analysis has to be made and sufficient lead-time granted to introduce these requirements.

The ESC fitting rate for the whole existing vehicle fleet in the EU25 in 2007 was 19,6%. The latest installation rates (by new car registrations) are shown in the graph.

Go back