Vehicle standards

EC Whole Vehicle Type Approval (ECWVTA) and National Approval of Motor Vehicles

Find out more about the vehicle type approval standards required for entry into service & registration of motor vehicles in Ireland.

Type approval helps remove barriers to trade for manufacturers and ensures that new vehicles are manufactured to prescribed safety and environmental standards.

Currently all new passenger cars are required to have type approval in the form of either ECWVTA, NSSTA (National Small Series Type Approval) or IVA (Individual Vehicle Approval) in order to be registered in Ireland.

Companies or individuals involved in the manufacture or registration of new passenger cars are required to have an EC or NSSTA Certificate of Conformity (CoC) or an IVA certificate for each new vehicle presented for registration.

The Framework Directive (2007/46/EC) was negotiated over several years and extends whole vehicle type approval (at various implementation dates) from passenger cars to include all other motor vehicle categories including:

  • vans
  • minibuses
  • buses
  • coaches
  • heavy goods vehicles
  • caravans
  • light and heavy trailers
  • horseboxes

Up until the future mandatory approval dates, these vehicles must meet with our current entry into service regulations. 

You can view a legislative guide which provides an overview of the current type approval and entry into service legislation which is applicable.

Obtaining Type Approval

There are three options available to companies or individuals involved in the manufacture or importation of new vehicles in order to obtain the required vehicle approval.
 
1. ECWVTA – European Communities Whole Vehicle Type Approval

ECWVTA consists of a series of tests carried out on a prototype vehicle and on the production process used to manufacture the vehicle. If the vehicle and production process pass these stringent safety and environmental tests, then the vehicle receives EC Whole Vehicle Type Approval. Each subsequent vehicle manufactured in the same way is issued with an EC Certificate of Conformity (EC CoC) which allows the vehicle to be registered in any Member State of the EU.

The ECWVTA route to approval is most suitable for manufacturers of large quantities of the same type of vehicle who regularly trade throughout Europe.

2. NSSTA – National Small Series Type Approval

There are a number of small to medium businesses who assemble or manufacture vehicles or trailers in small volumes intended only for the Irish market. These manufacturers may find ECWVTA prohibitively expensive due to the limited quantities of vehicles they produce. Therefore, Ireland has introduced a national small series type approval (NSSTA) scheme for the approval of such vehicles. The NSSTA scheme is administratively less onerous than ECWVTA and where appropriate, alternative technical requirements apply. There are also reduced Conformity of Production (CoP) requirements. Once NSSTA has been granted a manufacturer may issue a Certificate of Conformity (CoC) for each vehicle produced of the same type, however the number of vehicles per type that can be manufactured is limited (See Schedule 4 of SI No. 158 of 2009).

3. IVA – Individual Vehicle Approval

Ireland has introduced the Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) scheme for the approval of new vehicles and trailers imported or manufactured in very small numbers or as individual vehicles. Under the approval scheme, each vehicle is physically checked in order to ensure that it meets modern safety and environmental standards.

The technical and administrative requirements associated with IVA are less onerous those of NSSTA or ECWVTA. Once a vehicle passes an IVA inspection, an Individual Vehicle Approval Certificate is issued which allows the vehicle to be registered in Ireland.

Approval Authority

The National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) is the Irish appointed approval authority and is responsible for issuing National Small Series Type Approval (NSSTA) and Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) for vehicles in Ireland. NSAI has established a network of Appointed Test Centre’s (ATC) who physically examine and issue test reports for some or all of the technical requirements. These test reports are then used by NSAI to grant the vehicle or trailer approvals.

Mandatory Compliance Dates for ECWVTA and its related national approval schemes

Vehicle Category Date for obligatory approval for vehicles entering into service
M1 29 Apr 2009
Incomplete and complete vehicles of categories M2, M3 29 Oct 2010
Completed vehicles of categories M2, M3  29 Oct 2011
Incomplete and complete vehicles of category N1 
Special- purpose vehicles of category M1 
 29 Apr 2012
Incomplete and complete vehicles of categories N2, N3, O1, O2, O3, O4  29 Oct 2012
Completed vehicles of category N1  29 Apr 2013
Completed vehicles of categories O1, O2, O3, O4  29 Oct 2013
Special- purpose vehicles of categories N1, N2, N3, M2, M3, O1, O2, O3, O4  29 Oct 2014

Completed vehicles of categories N2, N3

Please see our vehicle categories  section for EU definitions of the various vehicle categories.

Mandatory dates for approval of buses fast approaching

There are two important upcoming dates for the sale and entry of NEW buses in Ireland (categories M2, M3);

  • In order to be sold or entered into service, Complete or Incomplete buses must have proof of approval from 29th October 2010.
  • In order to be sold or entered into service, Completed buses must have proof of approval from 29th October 2011.

A Bus and Mini-Bus Type Approval Leaflet (PDF) is available for download which provides an overview of the type approval process and presents various scenarios in a questions and answers format.