Automotive Homologation
Prior to sales of motor vehicles, , systems and their components need to have type approvals according to the national or International standards of their desired countries. These standards aim at improving active and passive vehicle safety, protection towards nature as well as sets the requirement for quality of products and its production process. For the European market, two systems for homologation co-exist:
• European Union (EU) directives
Since 1998 the European 'Whole-Vehicle-Type-Approval' (WVTA) is progressively replacing the individual national type
approvals of the EU member states. This allows manufacturers to have a vehicle "type" approved in one member state and
then be able to market the vehicle in all other member states without further tests.
• United Nation Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) regulations
ECE is an organisational part of the United Nations. Members are EU member states as well as many other countries such
as Japan, South Africa, Russia, Belarus and Turkey. Thus, testing according ECE regulations opens the gate to the
worldwide markets because of a broader acceptance of approved components.
Homologation process
The homologation process consists of several steps:- • WVTA (Whole vehicle Type approval)
- • Component approvals
- • STU approvals
- • Individual system level approval.
For each applicable item, the European authority granting approval chosen by the manufacturer will issue a system approval according to each applicable directive/regulation. Those approvals are based on test reports prepared by an officially recognized testing organisation (Technical Service). Once all testing is done, the testing organisation issues the report for the approval as a basis for the type approval certificate.
This certificate is recognized in all EU member states.
The variety of vehicles concerned is very broad:
- • Passenger cars and Commercial vehicles & their Trailers
- • Motorcycles
- • Agricultural machines
- • Engines for machinery
- • Components & STU’s