7 Type-Approval
EU regulations require that vehicles intended for the carriage of passengers or goods
must comply with certain mandatory technical requirements before they are
allowed on the roads. Vehicles must, therefore, be subjected to a series of
standardised tests to ensure they reach the required standards. The legislation for
type-approval is Regulation (EU) 2018/858.
7.1 Type-Approval and CO2
Among the tests required is one to measure the CO
2
emissions from a vehicle. While
it is not necessary to subject each individual vehicle to the test, the directives and
regulations are quite specific regarding the method of carrying out the tests and the
actual models to which the results can be applied. For example, a test may cover a
particular model that has a number of variants and/or versions. In this case a single
CO
2
figure can be provided for that model provided that the figure given is based on
the variant and/or version with the highest official CO
2
emissions within the range.
This prevents a manufacturer submitting the most fuel-efficient vehicle to the test
and then including less efficient variants, e.g. those with automatic transmission, as
the official CO
2
emissions for the range. Following the test, the official emissions of
CO
2
are quoted to the nearest whole number in grams per kilometre (g/km).
Prior to the 2018 Finance Act, CO
2
emissions for passenger and light duty vehicles
were measured in accordance with the New European Drive Cycle (NEDC).
However, NEDC was replaced on a phased basis by the World Harmonised Light
Vehicle Testing Procedure (WLTP). From 1 September 2018, it became mandatory
for all new vehicles to be tested under WLTP. To aid the transition from NEDC to
WLTP, the Commission introduced a conversion tool known as C0
2
MPAS, which can
derive an NEDC figure from a WLTP figure.
This changed the way in which vehicle CO
2
emissions were calculated and therefore
affected all Member States who apply vehicle taxes based on CO
2
emissions. As
such, the definition of CO
2
emissions in the legislation has been revised to distinguish
between the various types of CO
2
emissions: NEDC, WLTP, and CO
2
MPAS-derived
NEDC.
From 1 January 2021, VRT on Category A vehicles is mainly calculated using the CO
2
emissions produced under the WLTP measuring system. This replaces the NEDC
measuring system. It will still be possible to register cars measured under the NEDC
system by applying a conversion factor prior to registration.
A new structure of rates and bands was introduced for VRT in January 2021, with the
full implementation of WLTP. For calculating the CO
2
component of VRT, there was
an increase in the number of bands to 20, with a wider gap between the lowest and
highest VRT rate. From 1 January 2022, the lowest and highest rates for calculating
the CO
2
component of VRT stand at 7% and 41% respectively.