The European Commission has proposed changes to EU rules on road safety, vehicle registration, and technical inspections, which would affect both modern electric vehicles and older cars. The current regulations were last updated in 2014. The Commission announced the proposal in a press release on April 24.
The new rules would introduce regular technical inspections for electric vehicles and modern driver assistance systems, annual inspections for passenger cars and vans over ten years old, and improved methods for testing emissions to prevent fine particle pollution.
The EU’s executive body is also proposing to introduce digital vehicle registration certificates and to simplify cross-border data exchanges. This would make it easier for people temporarily residing in another EU country to complete regular roadworthiness tests. The European Commission’s proposals will now be reviewed by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, which represents the member states.
The Commission states that the proposal aims to improve “road safety and air quality across the EU.”
The new rules take into account the growing number of electric vehicles on European roads and aim to respond to evolving technologies. The last update to the current rules was in 2014.
“The European Union is firmly committed to cutting the number of road deaths and serious injuries by 50 percent by 2030,” said Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the European Commissioner for Transport. “Today’s initiative is an important step toward making our roads safer, our air cleaner, and our citizens’ lives easier,” he added.
