23 February 2012 02:30:37
| Euro 5/6 |
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The Euro 5/6 Type-Approval Legislation for Passenger Cars and Light Duty Vehicles
The 'Euro 5' Regulations (EC) No. 715/2007 and (EC) No. 692/2008 primarily aim at reducing the green house gas emissions of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, but also tackle issues impacting the aftermarket distribution when it comes to techincal requirements for the type-approval of vehicles, most importantly the access to technical information necessary for the repair and maintenance of vehicles.
Access to repair and maintenance information (RMI)
The ‘Euro 5/6’ Regulations include specific provisions on access to technical information for independent operators. It imposes an obligation upon vehicle manufacturers to ensure, at the time of type-approval, that independent operators must get unrestricted and standardised access to repair and maintenance information, including information to ensure the functionality of multi-brand diagnostic tools and test equipment to service these vehicles.
The ‘Euro 5/6’ Regulations have been amended in June 2011 in order to take account of advances in vehicles technology since the drafting of the legal texts in 2006.
More information on the amending process:
More information on Euro 5/6 Regulations:
Standardised access to RMI for Euro 5/6 vehicles (CEN process)
The European Commission has mandated CEN in November 2007 to set a process for the elaboration of a standard electronic format to communicate repair and maintenance information to all operators of the automotive aftermarket. This process, in which both aftermarket operators and vehicle manufacturer are involved, is still on-going.
Standardised access to security-related RMI for Euro 5/6 vehicles (Security Forum)
In the event that these software updates would involve security features (i.e. the anti-theft systems) of the vehicle, the European Commission intends to find a manner whereby access to security-related information shall be given whilst not compromising the vehicle’s anti-theft system.
Therefore the legislation provides that access to this information shall be made available also to independent operators, but under the protection of security standards and security certificates and on the condition that the independent operator is approved for this purpose on the basis of specific documents and according to specific requirements.
To develop the processes and requirements, the EU legislator established the Security Forum involving all stakeholders and EU Member States. The aim of the Security Forum is to define a standardised process to enable the access to security-related Repair and Maintenance Information via the Internet and to make recommendations for a harmonised accreditation process. |
The CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation - European Committee for Standardisation) is the European organisation entrusted with the adoption of European standards in many areas of economic activity, including the automotive sector.
With the growing electronic complexity of vehicles and components, software updates have become nowadays integral part of routine repair or maintenance jobs, and are therefore explicitly mentioned in the definition of Repair and Maintenance Information (RMI) in the ‘Euro 5/6’ Regulations.