THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 715/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2007 on type-approval of motor vehicles with respect to emissions from light passenger and commercial vehicles (Euro 5 and Euro 6) and on access to vehicle repair and maintenance information, and in particular Article 14(3) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Regulation (EC) No 715/2007 requires new light-duty vehicles to comply with certain emission limits including evaporative emissions. The specific technical provisions necessary to implement that Regulation were adopted by Commission Regulation (EC) No 692/2008.
(2)
The Commission established a working group in March 2011 involving all interested stakeholders for reviewing the existing methodology for measuring evaporative emissions and developing a new one, addressing mainly the issues of purging strategy, effect of ethanol on canister working capacity, durability, fuel permeation and refuelling emissions.
(3)
The working group based its work on many elements contained in two reports published by the Joint Research Centre of the Commission entitled ‘Estimating the Costs and Benefits of Introducing a new European Evaporative Emissions Test Procedure’ and ‘Review of the European Test Procedure for Evaporative Emissions: Main Issues and Proposed Solutions’.
(4)
The analysis of the working group has identified a number of shortfalls which undermine the efficacy of the evaporative emissions control and need to be remedied in order to ensure an satisfactory level of environmental protection. It is therefore appropriate to introduce two new procedures for aging of the carbon canister and for the definition of a permeability of the fuel system in the existing type-approval procedure.
(5)
The addition of ethanol in the European petrol fuels, especially when splash-blended has an effect in the vapour pressure of the fuel. The E10 reference fuel should therefore be used in testing in order to better reflect the currently used fuel in the Union.
(6)
Monolayer plastic tanks are still being sold in the Union and are expected to be a significant part of the European fleet until the year 2030. However, such tanks are permeable to ethanol, which is thus emitted in the environment. Therefore, a dedicated procedure to measure the permeation of ethanol is needed in order to take into account this effect.
(7)
The addition of ethanol was also proven to affect the durability of carbon canisters in studies performed by the Swedish Road Administration and TUV Nord. For this reason, a new procedure should be added in order to age the canister. The aged canister should then be used in the tested vehicle during the SHED test.
(8)
The current purging strategies employed in vehicles in the Union are not adequate especially for urban driving and thus may lead to increased bleed emissions. Therefore, the test drive before the SHED test was reviewed and the duration of the diurnal test should be increased to 48 hours.
(9)
Regulation (EC) No 692/2008 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(10)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Technical Committee — Motor Vehicles,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: