EC Whole Vehicle Type Approval is nothing new, Cars, Motorcycles, Tricycles, Quadricycles, and Tractors have been subject to it for some time - nearly 15 years for Cars, 10 years for Motorcycles, Trikes and Quads, 8 years for Tractors.

These early compliance dates are partly due to the relatively straightforward manufacturing and sales process of these vehicles, however Commercial Vehicles represent a far more complicated manufacturing process due to very high percentage of multi-stage builds involving two or more manufacturers of the product before the vehicle is registered.

Therefore a new framework directive – 2007/46/EC incorporating a new EC type Approval method of ‘multi-stage Type Approval’ specifically for Commercial Vehicles, Bus’s, Trailers and Special Purpose vehicles was developed. The vehicle categories included within this directive make up the last group with phased enforcement dates between October 2011 and September 2014.

2007/46/EC Enforcement Dates:-

Whole Vehicle Type Approval to 2007/46/EC for Cars, Commercial Vehicles, Bus’s, Trailers and Special Purpose Vehicles became law from April 29th 2009 and will be enforced in a phased process dependent upon:-

1. New or existing ‘Type’
2. Vehicle Category
3. Build Stage – Complete, Incomplete or Completed

For the purposes of clarity the timing matrix (below) shows existing ‘Types’ representing the timings of most interest to the Conversion Industry and Trailer manufacturers.
  Enforcement Date
  Catergory Vehicle Description Complete Incomplete Completed
Cars
  M1 Special Purpose - SA, SB, SC, SD, SG, SH 29/Apr/2012
Minibus and Coach
  M2 Passenger vehicles more than 8 seats + driver less than 5.0t GVM 29/Oct/2011
M3 Passenger vehicles more than 8 seats + driver greater than 5.0t GVM 29/Oct/2011
Commercials
  N1 Goods vehicles less than 3.5t GVM 29/Oct/2011 29/Oct/2011 29/Apr/2013
N2 Goods vehicles 3.5t - 12t GVM 29/Sept/2012 29/Sept/2012 29/Sept/2014
N3 Goods vehicles greater than 12t GVM 29/Sept/2012 29/Sept/2012 29/Sept/2014
Trailers
  O1 Trailers less than 0.75t gross 29/Sept/2012 29/Sept/2012 29/Sept/2013
O2 Trailers 0.75t - 3.5t gross 29/Sept/2012 29/Sept/2012 29/Sept/2013
O3 Trailers 3.5t - 10t gross 29/Sept/2012 29/Sept/2012 29/Sept/2013
O4 Trailers exceeding 10t gross 29/Sept/2012 29/Sept/2012 29/Sept/2013
Special Purpose
  N SB, SG 29/Sept/2012
N3 SF     29/Sept/2012
O SE 29/Sept/2012
Special Purpose Types - reference
  SA Motor Caravans
SB Armoured vehicles
SC Ambulances
SD Hearses
SE Trailer Caravans
SF Mobile cranes
SG Other special purpose vehicles
SH Wheel-chair accesible vehicle (WAV)

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