Press Release: New worldwide test procedures for measuring emissions from trucks and buses

Truck and bus manufacturers will be able to develop just one family of engines for all major world markets, due to a new Global Technical Regulation (GTR), which was agreed at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) in Geneva, November 2006. The regulation will enter into force within eight months and set harmonised standards for the exhaust emissions of lorries and buses. It creates a level playing field for manufacturers of heavy duty vehicles on a worldwide scale, given that all major industrialised countries (such as China, Japan and the USA) have acceded to this GTR. Up to now, test cycles and methods of emissions measurement have varied significantly around the world. The UN/ECE also adopted a second GTR on electronic on-board diagnostic systems for heavy duty vehicles (see IP/06/1568). The European Commission got a clear mandate from other EU-institutions to negotiate the agreement in Geneva.