World forum for the harmonization of vehicle regulations

World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29)
Organization type	Working group
Abbreviation	WP.29
management	Boris Kisulenko (since 2004)
status	active
Founded	1952
Headquarters	Geneva
Upper organization	UNECE Inland Transport Committee
UNECE Transport - WP29

The World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations) is a working group ( WP.29 ) of the Inland Transport Committee (ITC) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Its task is to create a uniform system of rules, the " UN regulations ", for vehicle construction in order to facilitate international trade. The aim is to initiate and pursue measures for the worldwide harmonization or further development of technical regulations for vehicles. The legal framework for the work of WP.29 are three multilateral agreements from 1958, 1997 and 1998.

WP.29 was founded on June 6, 1952 as the " Working Party on the Construction of Vehicles ", while its current name was adopted in March 2000.

The forum deals with the regulations for vehicle safety , environmental protection , energy efficiency and theft protection.

1958 Convention

The core of the Forum's work is based on the "1958 Convention", formally entitled "Agreement on the Adoption of Uniform Technical Prescriptions for Wheeled Vehicles, Equipment and Parts That Can Be Mounted and / or Used on Wheeled Vehicles, and the Conditions for the mutual recognition of the permits issued on the basis of these regulations ”(E / ECE / TRANS / 505 / Rev.2, amended on October 16, 1995). This forms a legal framework in which the participating countries (contracting parties) agree on a common set of technical regulations and protocols for the type approval of vehicles and components. These were formerly known as "UNECE regulations" or, even less formally, "ECE regulations" in relation to the Economic Commission for Europe. However, since many non-European countries are now parties to the 1958 Convention, the regulations are officially referred to as "UN Regulations". The type approvals of each contractual partner are recognized by all other contractual partners.

participating countries

The first to sign the 1958 agreement were Italy (March 28), the Netherlands (March 30), Germany (June 19), France (June 26), Hungary (June 30), Sweden and Belgium. Originally the agreement only allowed ECE member countries to participate, but in 1995 the agreement was revised to allow non-ECE members to participate. Current participants include the European Union and its member countries as well as non-EU UNECE members such as Norway, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Tunisia and even remote areas such as South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia.

States participating in the 1958 Convention:

ECE code	country	Effective Date	Remarks
1	Germany	January 28, 1965
2	France	June 20, 1959
3	Italy	April 26, 1963
4th	Netherlands	August 29, 1960
5	Sweden	June 20, 1959
6th	Belgium	5th September 1959
7th	Hungary	July 2nd, 1960
8th	Czech Republic	January 1, 1993	(formerly Czechoslovakia )
9	Spain	October 10, 1961
10	Serbia	March 12, 2001	(formerly Yugoslavia )
11	United Kingdom	March 16, 1963
12	Austria	May 11, 1971
13	Luxembourg	December 12, 1971
14th	Switzerland	August 28, 1973
15th	GDR		(Expired in 1999)
16	Norway	April 4th 1975
17th	Finland	17th September 1976
18th	Denmark	20th December 1976
19th	Romania	February 21, 1977
20th	Poland	March 13, 1979
21st	Portugal	March 28, 1980
22nd	Russian Federation	17th February 1987
23	Greece	5th December 1992
24	Ireland	March 24, 1998
25th	Croatia	October 8, 1991
26th	Slovenia	June 25, 1991
27	Slovakia	January 1, 1993
28	Belarus	July 2nd 1995
29	Estonia	May 1, 1995
31	Bosnia and Herzegovina	March 6, 1992
32	Latvia	January 18, 1999
34	Bulgaria	January 21, 2000
35	Kazakhstan	January 8, 2011
36	Lithuania	March 29, 2002
37	Turkey	February 27, 1996
39	Azerbaijan	June 14, 2002
40	North Macedonia	November 17, 1991
42	European Union	March 24, 1998
43	Japan	November 24, 1998
45	Australia	April 25, 2000
46	Ukraine	June 30, 2000
47	South Africa	June 17, 2001
48	New Zealand	January 26, 2002
49	Cyprus	May 1, 2004
50	Malta	May 1, 2004
51	South Korea	December 31, 2004
52	Malaysia	April 4, 2006
53	Thailand	May 1, 2006
54	Albania	November 5, 2011
55	Armenia	April 30, 2018
56	Montenegro	June 3, 2006
57	San Marino	January 26, 2016
58	Tunisia	January 1, 2008
60	Georgia	May 25, 2015
62	Egypt	3rd February 2013
63	Nigeria	17th December 2018

Most countries, even if they do not formally participate in the 1958 agreement, recognize the UN regulations and either reflect the content of the UN regulations in their own national requirements or allow the import, registration and use of UN-approved vehicles or both. The United States and Canada are the two major exceptions. UN regulations are generally not recognized there and UN-compliant vehicles and equipment are not approved for import, sale, or use in the two regions unless they have been tested to comply with the region's safety regulations or for limited periods non-driving use.

Type approval

Two types of E-mark: above - according to UN regulations, below - according to EC guidelines

The 1958 agreement is based on the principles of type approval and mutual recognition. Any country that accedes to the 1958 Agreement has the power to review and approve a manufacturer's design of a regulated product, regardless of the country in which that part was manufactured. Each individual design from each individual manufacturer is counted as a single type. Once an acceding country grants a type approval, every other acceding country is required to recognize that type approval and to consider that vehicle or automotive equipment as legal to import, sell and use. Items that are type-approved according to a UN regulation are marked with an E and a number within a circle ( ECE test mark ). The number indicates which country has approved the item, and other surrounding letters and numbers indicate the exact version of the regulation made or the type-approval number.

Although all type-approvals from all countries are legally equivalent, there are actual and perceived differences in the rigor with which the regulations and protocols are applied by different national type-approval authorities. Some countries have their own national type approval standards, which can be stricter than the UN regulations themselves. In the automotive supplier industry, for example, a German (E1) type approval is a safe measure against suspicion of poor quality or an undeserved type approval.

UN regulations

→ Main article : ECE regulations

Currently (2019) there are 147 UN regulations annexed to the 1958 agreement; most regulations cover a single vehicle component or technology. There are regulations for the following subject areas:

• lighting
• Headlights
• Instrumentation / control
• Crash behavior
• Environmental sustainability
• Tires & Wheels

North America

The most notable non-signatory to the 1958 agreement is the United States, which has its own Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and does not recognize UN type-approvals. However, both the United States and Canada are contracting parties to the 1998 Convention. UN-specified vehicles and components that do not comply with US regulations cannot therefore be imported into the USA without extensive modifications. Canada has its own Canadian Automotive Safety Standards that are broadly the same as those of the FMVSS in the United States. However, Canada also accepts UN-compliant headlights and bumpers. It should be noted, however, that the forthcoming Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union could allow Canada to recognize more UN regulations as an acceptable alternative to Canadian regulations. Canada currently applies 14 of the 17 main ECE standards as permitted alternatives - the exceptions at this point are motorcycle controls and displays, motorcycle mirrors and electronic stability control for passenger cars. These three remaining groups will be allowed in Canada pending ratification of the trade agreement.

Self certification

The US and Canadian auto safety regulations do not work according to a UN-like system of type approvals, but rather according to the principle of self-certification, whereby the manufacturer or importer of a vehicle or automotive equipment certifies this, i.e. H. claims and promises that the vehicle or equipment complies with all applicable federal and Canadian automotive security, bumper and anti-theft regulations. A government agency or authorized inspection agency does not require prior inspection before the vehicle or equipment can be imported, sold, or used. If there is reason to believe that the certification is false or incorrect - i.e. That is, the vehicle or equipment does not actually match - the authorities can carry out tests and, if non-compliance is found, order a recall and / or other corrective and / or punitive measures. Vehicle and equipment manufacturers are allowed to challenge such penalties, but it is difficult to do so. Violations that are proven to have no impact on road safety can be requested to skip the recall (remedial and notification) requirements for vehicles that have already been manufactured.

Regulatory differences

A comparison of the European (above) and US (below) headlight configurations on similar Citroën DS

Historically, one of the most noticeable differences between UN and US regulations has been the design and performance of headlights. The Citroën DS shown here shows the huge differences in headlights during the 1940–1983 era, when US regulations required sealed beam headlights . It is not currently possible to produce a single vehicle design that meets UN and US requirements at the same time, but it will get easier as technology and both sets of rules develop. Given the size of the US vehicle market and the different marketing strategies in North America compared to the rest of the world, many manufacturers produce vehicles in three versions: North America, Rest of the World Right Hand Drive (RHD) and Rest of the World Left Hand Drive (LHD).

1998 Convention

The "Agreement on Establishing Global Technical Regulations for Wheeled Vehicles, Equipment and Parts That Can Be Attached and / or Used on Wheeled Vehicles," or the 1998 Agreement, is a later agreement. Following its mission to harmonize vehicle regulations, the UNECE resolved the main problems (administrative provisions for type-approval versus self-certification and mutual recognition of type-approvals) in order to prevent non-signatory countries to the 1958 Convention from fully participating in its activities.

The 1998 agreement was enacted to create meta guidelines, entitled Global Technical Regulation (GTR), with no administrative type-approval procedures and no mutual recognition of type-approval principles. The 1998 agreement stipulates that the contracting parties set the United Nations' global technical regulations (UN GTRs) by consensus in a UN Global Register. The UN-GTR contain globally harmonized performance requirements and test procedures. Each UN GTR contains detailed information on its development. The text contains a record of the technical reasons, the research sources used, considerations on costs and benefits, and references to data consulted. When implementing the UN GTR into national law, the contracting parties use their nationally established rule-setting processes. The 1998 agreement currently includes 33 contracting parties and 20 UN GTRs that have been included in the United Nations global register.

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership 2013 (proposal)

As part of the negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership ( TTIP ), the problems of diverging standards in automobile regulation are examined. The TTIP negotiators are trying to find ways to narrow the regulatory differences, possibly lowering costs and stimulating additional trade in vehicles.

OICA

The Organization Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA) hosts working documents from various United Nations expert groups on its website, including the World Forum for the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations.

See also

• Worldwide harmonized light vehicles test procedures
• Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards

Web links

• UN Regulations
• World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) - How It Works, How to Join It
• World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations FAQ

credentials

1. ↑ UNECE: Vehicle Regulations - Introduction. Retrieved October 26, 2018 . 
2. ↑ WP.29 - Introduction - Transport - UNECE .
3. ↑ The End of the 'ECE' Era , Driving Vision News , August 29, 2011
4. ^ UNECE: Status of the 1958 Agreement (and of the annexed regulations). Retrieved February 12, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Gray market cars: Everything you need to know to avoid seeing your ride get crushed . August 30, 2013.
6. ↑ Marketing emphasis on German E1 type approval (PDF) Retrieved November 13, 2011.
7. ↑ CETA Means Big Changes For Canadian Automotive Industry. October 18, 2013, accessed March 20, 2014 . 
8. ↑ https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=751039
9. ↑ Press Releases .
10. ↑ ECFR - Code of Federal Regulations .
11. ↑ Archived copy . Archived from the original on December 29, 2010. Retrieved on December 29, 2010.
12. ↑ 1971 Citröen DS. January 12, 2015, accessed October 26, 2018 . 
13. ↑ Raphael Orlove: A Simple Explanation Why America Does not Get European hatchbacks .
14. ↑ UNECE: Global Technical Regulations (GTRs) of UNECE. Retrieved February 5, 2014 . 
15. ↑ OICA un-expert-group-documents . Oica.net. Retrieved November 13, 2011.