Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2866 of 15 December 2023 implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/631 of the European Parliament and of the Council by determining the procedures for performing the verification of the CO2 emission and fuel consumption values of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in-service (in-service verification)

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2019/631 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 setting CO2 emission performance standards for new passenger cars and for new light commercial vehicles, and repealing Regulations (EC) No 443/2009 and (EU) No 510/2011⁽¹⁾, and in particular Article 7(9), third subparagraph and Article 13(4), first subparagraph, thereof,

Whereas:

1. Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2019/631 requires the Commission to verify the CO2 emission and fuel consumption values of vehicles in-service.

2. In order to ensure that the in-service verification is representative, a minimum number of vehicle families to be tested should be selected by the granting type-approval authorities. It is appropriate that synergies are found between in-service verification of CO2 emissions and the in-service conformity checks of pollutant emissions.

3. In order to target those in-service verification families that have the highest risk of including vehicles with a deviation in the CO2 emission and fuel consumption values from the specific emissions of CO2 and fuel consumption values recorded in the certificate of conformity, the granting type-approval authority should select for verification those in-service verification families for which it received evidence which it considers to be sufficiently indicating that such deviation may exist, complemented by in-service verification families selected on the basis of a risk assessment to be performed by the Commission.

4. In order to ensure sufficient coverage of each type of test, it is appropriate to set a minimum percentage of families to be covered by each type of test, based on the total number of in-service verification families for which the granting type-approval authority has issued emissions type-approvals, including emissions type-approval extensions involving changes to the declared CO2 emissions values.

5. As the CO2 emission and fuel consumption values recorded in the certificate of conformity are determined based on type-approval testing, it is appropriate to require that the vehicles selected for the in-service verification test are in a similar condition as those tested during type-approval, in particular by setting requirements for their maximum mileage and age.

6. In order to limit the testing burden, the granting type-approval authority should be able to either apply the same correction factors for calculating the vehicle’s CO2 emissions as for type-approval or, if it sees a need to verify one or more of those factors, to determine them as part of the in-service verification by performing the same tests as for type-approval.

7. For off-vehicle charging hybrid electric vehicles (‘OVC-HEV’), the in-service verification chassis dynamometer test result should be based only on the charge sustaining mode and information on the relevant parameters in charge depleting mode should be collected to allow assessing whether a future adjustment would be necessary.

8. In order to enable the future in-service verification of the accuracy of the on-board fuel and/or energy consumption monitoring (‘OBFCM’) devices installed in the vehicles, it is appropriate to collect the values recorded by the OBFCM device during the in-service verification chassis dynamometer test.

9. In order not to underestimate the size of the deviation in the CO2 emission values of any vehicle within an in-service verification family, the size of the deviation should be based on the average ratio of the CO2 emission value determined from the in-service tests to the CO2 emission value as recorded in the certificate of conformity, and on the CO2 emission value of the vehicle high of that in-service verification family.

10. In order to evaluate the road load test result against the CO2 emission value reported in the certificate of conformity of the vehicle, the CO2 emission value corresponding with the road load test result should be calculated using the interpolation method applied for type-approval or, where that method was not applied, using a generic fuel-type specific average ratio of the CO2 emission values to the cycle energy demand.

11. In order to detect an artificial strategy, which operates only during the type-approval tests and not during normal operation in-service, it is crucial that the specific testing conditions are not known beforehand and, therefore, the conditions for the dedicated artificial strategy tests should be determined on a case-by-case basis by the granting type-approval authority.

12. Given that the exact nature of artificial strategies cannot be known beforehand, the analysis and evaluation of the artificial strategy test results should be done by the granting type-approval authority based on a comparison of results found under different test conditions.

13. In order to document the test results and provide for their further analysis, the granting type-approval authority should make the test report available to the Commission and the manufacturer concerned. In order to support the risk assessment performed by the Commission, it is appropriate to require that the test data is also submitted to the Commission, using a dedicated platform.

14. In case there is a deviation in the CO2 emission values found, the manufacturer concerned should be given the opportunity to react to the findings of the granting type-approval authority, including by providing evidence that would challenge those findings. In order to avoid an undue extension of the in-service verification process, it is reasonable to limit the response time for the manufacturer.

15. Where a lack of correspondence of CO2 emission values or the presence of any strategies artificially improving a vehicle’s performance is found as a result of the in-service verifications performed, the specific emissions of CO2 of all vehicles of the in-service verification family or, where applicable, of the road load family, should be corrected, given that the test vehicle sample is deemed to be representative of the whole in-service verification family or, where applicable, whole road-load family. In such case, the responsible type-approval authority should also take the necessary measures set out in Chapter XI of Regulation (EU) 2018/858⁽²⁾, as well as ensure the correction of the certificates of conformity.

16. As the test procedures for in-service verification are based on the worldwide harmonised light vehicles test procedure (‘WLTP’) set out in UN Regulation No 154⁽³⁾, a correction of the average specific emissions of CO2 of a manufacturer can be applied starting from 2021, as that is since when those average specific emissions of CO2 are based on the WLTP. A manufacturer should be given the opportunity to notify errors in the corrections applied, as part of the existing error notification procedure during the CO2 emission monitoring process.

17. The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Climate Change Committee,

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