BIPAVER Explains European Legislation

Following its recently held General Assembly, which took place during the Autopromotec exhibition in May, BIPAVER, the federation of European trade associations representing the retreading industry, has issued guidance to its membership explaining the mass of type approval legislation that is scheduled to be introduced over the course of the coming years.

At the same time, the Federation's Technical Committee has reported that the previously announced joint project with German Technical House BAST to test retreads for noise, wet grip and rolling resistance, has now been passed and is currently being evaluated for potential funding within the corridors of Brussels. The project, has a budget of 1.5 million Euros of which 645,000 Euros will need to be self funded by BIPAVER members, although this can take the form of members' time, tyres etc. According to BIPAVER the evaluation phase is due to last a year, after which, if funding is approved, BIPAVER will have a further one and a half years to complete the test programme. The aim of the testing programme is to demonstrate that retreads perform favourably in comparison to new tyres, potentially paving the way for retreads to be included in type approval legislation, from which they are currently excluded as well as providing a valuable marketing tool for the retreading industry, enabling it to prove the performance quality of its products. The guidance note issued by BIPAVER to explain forthcoming legislation attempts to simplify the legislation by categorising it into three groups, whilst pointing out how the three sets of legislation interact with each other as well as any inconsistencies and areas where the legislation is unclear.

Vehicle Type Approval - COM (2008) 316 final

This is a Decree issued by the European Parliament and Council regarding the type approval of the vehicle for general safety. The legislation becomes applicable from 1 November 2011 for the OE market and from 1 November 2012 for the replacement market. The legislation covers rolling resistance, wet grip and tyre noise emissions but is applicable for new tyres only. Retreads are, at the moment excluded.

Component Type Approval - 2001/43EC

This is a type approval scheme for components and is applied in combination with Regulation 92/23/EC and UNECE Regulation 117.

This regulation has been applicable for the OE market since February 2004 for all new type approved vehicles and from February 2005 for all new registered vehicles. This legislation also specifically excludes retreads (there is no noise test available under Reg 117 by which retreads can be tested) and because of this, those retreaders who had supplied specialist tyres to certain OE vehicle manufacturers, have, in recent years, found themselves excluded from this business. This legislation covers tyre noise emissions and wet grip, but not, as yet, rolling resistance. Although wet grip is included in the legislation, there is, at the moment, no authorised test procedure and therefore wet grip under ECE 117 is not yet obligatory.

2001/43 EC is currently in the news because from 1 October this year, it will progressively become applicable to the replacement market, starting with light truck tyres, truck tyres and car tyres with a diameter below 185. From this date all new tyres brought into the market in these categories will require an "S" mark. Research indicates that a considerable number of unmarked tyres are still in stock at wholesalers throughout Europe (possibly millions of units) and how this situation will be dealt with has yet to be resolved. Attempts have been made to delay the implementation of the Directive although current indications are that this is likely to be unsuccessful.

What is becoming clear is that the industry and retail trade is generally confused about the legislation and many dealers and end users appear uncertain about the status of retreads in the legislation. The RMA in the UK has reported having to deal with a number of retailers who have required proof that retreads are exempt from the legislation and the Association has subsequently issued a statement on Association letterheaded paper for use by members needing to confirm that retreads are exempt.

Labelling Directive - COM (2008) 779

The latest Directive to be proposed is a special regulation concerning the marking of tyres. The Directive covers so-called "Eco-labelling" - marking the tyres according to rolling resistance, wet grip and tyre noise emissions. This proposal is currently under discussion but the planned date of ratification is 1 November 2012.

The main difficulty with this proposed regulation is the fact that although it is supposed to exist in parallel with the type approval legislation, it currently bears no relation to the tyre approval method.

A further issue for retreaders is that although the introduction in 2012 will specifically exclude retreads, the proposal specifies a review by 2015 to decide whether retreads should be included in the legislation - despite the fact of course, that retreads are currently specifically excluded from both the vehicle and components type approval legislation.

There is clearly substantial work still to be done on this legislation, and BIPAVER's Technical Committee is at the forefront of moves to make sure that the interests of the retreading industry are represented and protected.

Issue 2009/3