Adoption Of Two New Motorcycle Global Regulations At The 170th Session Of The World Forum WP.29

At the 170th meeting of the United Nations’ World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29), two new global technical regulations (GTR) were adopted concerning the environmental performance of two- and three-wheeled vehicles.

As a way to help improve air quality internationally, the Contracting Parties to the 1998 Agreement had determined in 2012 that harmonization work should be undertaken to address the environmental performance requirements from two- and three-wheeled vehicles. A dedicated ad-hoc group of experts was set up to tackle various environmental issues: the Informal Group EPPR. Various meetings were organized, under the leadership of the European Commission, in Europe, Japan, India and United States leading to the delivery of these two new global technical regulations.

The first global technical regulation concerns the measurement procedure for two- or three-wheeled motor vehicles equipped with a combustion engine with regard to their crankcase and evaporative emissions. The second one concerns the measurement procedure with regard to on-board diagnostics of motorcycles.

The aim of these regulations is to provide measures to strengthen the world-harmonization of vehicle approval and certification legislation, to improve the cost effectiveness of environmental performance testing, remove trade barriers, reduce overall complexity of legislation, remove potential areas of conflict or opposing requirements and improve the air quality world-wide. IMMA, engaged from the beginning of the process, provided continuous expert technical support secretariat services for the informal group.

The Chairman of IMMA’s Subcommittee on Environment Mr. Makoto Wakimura said: “The adoption of these two new GTR’s by 15 Contracting Parties, including the major markets Europe, India, Japan, China and United States, is a major milestone for the industry. We will continue to strongly support the Informal Group EPPR to pursue the updating and development of harmonized technical regulations”.

The next EPPR related gatherings will be held in Geneva on 13-14 December (including industry OBD II workshop), on 9 January 2017 prior to GRPE, and in Japan from 14-16 March 2017, addressing the review of World Motorcycle Emission Test Cycle and addressing advanced requirements for OBD-systems on powered two and three-wheeled vehicles.