(1)

On the basis of the Commission report to the European Parliament and the Council on the comprehensive effect study of the environmental step Euro 5 for L-category vehicles (‘the effect study’) carried out under Article 23(4) of Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) and taking into account issues encountered by approval authorities and stakeholders in applying that Regulation, certain changes and clarifications should be made in Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 in order to ensure its smooth application.

(2)

Regarding the requirement to install an on-board diagnostic (OBD) stage II system, which ensures the monitoring and reporting on the emission control system failures and degradation, the Commission concluded on the basis of the effect study that there are technical limitations with respect to catalyst monitoring for certain vehicles and that further development is required to ensure its correct implementation. Catalyst monitoring is not expected to be ready for the first round of the Euro 5 emission step, but is envisaged for 2025. Article 21 of Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 should therefore provide for the lead time needed to ensure the correct implementation of the OBD stage II system requirement.

(3)

Given that vehicles of categories L1e and L2e are already excluded from the requirement to be equipped with an OBD stage I system, the vehicles of category L6e, which are designed and built around moped specifications and produced in rather small volumes, should also be exempted from that requirement.

(4)

It is necessary to clarify the exemption for vehicles of categories L1e and L2e from the requirement to be equipped with an OBD stage II system and to extend that exemption to light quadricycles (L6e category) and to the enduro (L3e-AxE) and trial (L3e-AxT) motorcycle subcategories.

(5)

Enduro and trial motorcycles have a short lifespan and are very similar in nature and use to heavy all-terrain quad (L7e-B) which are exempted from the requirement to be equipped with an OBD stage II system. That exemption should therefore be extended to enduro and trial motorcycles.

(6)

The Commission concluded in the effect study that the mathematical durability procedure set out in point (c) of Article 23(3) of Regulation (EU) No 168/2013, whereby vehicles are tested after 100 km of use, does not reflect the real degradation of the emission control system of a vehicle during its lifetime. That method should no longer be used and should be phased out by 2025 to provide sufficient lead time to stakeholders to adapt. For the period until 2025, the required accumulated distance travelled by the vehicle before it is tested should be raised to ensure that the test results are reliable.

(7)

The technology that is necessary to meet the Euro 5 limits is already available. However the Commission concluded in the effect study, that the date of application of the Euro 5 emission limits for certain L-category vehicles (L6e-B, L2e-U, L3e-AxT and L3e-AxE) will need to be postponed from 2020 to 2024 to increase the cost-benefit ratio compared to the base line. In addition, manufacturers of those vehicles, which are mainly SMEs, require more lead time to ensure that the transition towards zero emission powertrains, such as electrification, can be achieved in a cost effective way.

(8)

Article 30 of Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 requires that an EU type-approval certificate contains, as an attachment, the test results. In the interests of clarity, that provision should be amended in order to make clear that what is being referred to is the test results sheet.

(9)

Certain inconsistencies in the date of application of the sound level limits for Euro 5 in Annex IV to Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 should be clarified to ensure that the existing limits (Euro 4) remain applicable until the new limits for Euro 5 can be established.

(10)

Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 empowered the Commission to adopt delegated acts for a period of five years, which expired on 21 March 2018. As there is a continuous need to update elements of the type-approval legislation to technical progress or to introduce other amendments in line with the empowerments, that Regulation should be amended to provide for the extension of the delegation for another five years with the possibility of tacit extension.

(11)

In the interest of legal certainty, the empowerment in Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 for the Commission to adopt delegated acts concerning the technical requirements related to on-board diagnostics should be made clearer and more precise.

(12)

Since this Regulation amends Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 without expanding its regulatory content and since the objectives of this Regulation cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.

(13)

Regulation (EU) No 168/2013 should therefore be amended accordingly,

(1)

Article 21 is replaced by the following:

(2)

in Article 23(3), point (c) is replaced by the following:

(3)

in Article 30(1), point (b) is replaced by the following:

(4)

in Article 44(1), the second subparagraph is replaced by the following:

‘The first subparagraph shall apply only to vehicles within the territory of the Union which were covered by a valid EU type-approval at the time of their production, but which neither were registered nor entered into service before that EU type-approval lost its validity.’;

(5)

Article 75(2) is replaced by the following:

(6)

Annexes II, IV, V and VI are amended in accordance with the Annex to this Regulation.