Recently the European Commission provided the UN-ECE working group on noise (GRB) a text proposal to explicitly exclude pure electric vehicles, like e-bikes, from the type approval tests of UN-ECE Regulation 63 regarding noise emissions of mopeds.

Proposal adopted

The proposal has been adopted by the GRB working group. With that it’s expected that in the June meeting of the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP 29) a majority of the contracting parties of the 1958 agreement will adopt the proposal of the European Commission as well.

Noise emissions of mopeds

Bike Europe asked type approval adviser Eugène Moerkerk of the Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry (CONEBI) why this exclusion of type approved e-bikes from UN-ECE Regulation 63 is important for manufacturers and importers. He said “In the current whole vehicle type approval (WVTA) requirements regarding noise, i.e. annex IX of Regulation 134/2014, there is a dynamic reference mentioned to UN-ECE Regulation 63. When the European Union has acceded to a future amended UN-ECE Regulation 63 regarding noise emissions of mopeds, this UN-ECE regulation will become mandatory for the vehicle category L1e (including L1e-A and L1e-B).

“And at the end, this dynamic reference could end into a WVTA-requirement which will lead unnecessary to additional costs for the e-bike manufacturer when noise testing would become mandatory for electric vehicles that do not have any noise emissions. The prevention of such unnecessary, additional costs is the main reason that CONEBI (together with ACEM) asked the European Commission to explicitly exclude pure electric vehicles, including vehicles with auxiliary electric propulsion, from the scope of the amended UN-ECE Regulation 63.”