European Commission adopts guidelines to improve vehicle inspections

21 March 2023

The European Commission has published a recommendation to improve the periodical technical inspection of vehicles . With road transport being the largest source of air pollution in cities, accurate testing is key to ensure that vehicles are in line with emission standards throughout their lifetime. Harmonised testing also ensures fair competition amongst manufacturers.

As current testing methods are not adapted to more recent vehicles equipped with particle filters, they cannot ensure that vehicles with defective or tampered diesel particulate filters are detected during inspections. Certain Member States have therefore introduced or will soon introduce particle number (PN) measurement as part of their inspections. While those methods are similar, they however differ in certain aspects.

To ensure a coordinated approach across the EU, the Commission’s guidelines define requirements related to the PN measuring equipment and procedure, metrological and technical requirements, and recommends a pass/fail limit.

The recommendations are based on existing methods developed by certain Member States, the findings of laboratory tests carried out by the Joint Research Centre of the Commission as well as a consultation of the Commission’s Roadworthiness Expert Group. The guidelines apply to the periodic technical inspection of vehicles equipped with compression ignition engines, and represent a first step towards harmonised PN measurement during roadworthiness testing.