FIA Conference: Loophole in European Type Approval?

Publication date: 01 December 2005

Stakeholders pronounce Europe's Safety Certification Regime Legal but question Safety Ethics

The FIA brought stakeholders together in Brussels, Tuesday 29th November to discuss the current safety certification regime for putting cars on the roads in Europe. The European Type Approval framework Directive 70/156/EC currently under review (in the modified legislative proposal COM (2004) 0738) has revealed itself in recent weeks to be open to misuse with serious potential threats to passenger vehicle safety.

The catastrophic results of the frontal crash tests of the Chinese Jiangling Landwind Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) performed by the German automobile club ADAC was the catalyst for this debate. Incredible but true, this life-threatening vehicle has been legally placed on avarious EU markets (Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands) in sizeable quantities without a Euroapean Type Approval and without complying to the European crash standard.

In principle all serial produced passenger cars registered on the territory of the European Union need a European type approval in accordance with Directive 70/156/EC. However, the Chinese sports utility vehicle (SUV) Jiangling Landwind has been introduced using a milder procedure ‘the individual vehicle approval’ whereby member states may allow vehicles as “individual” units to be imported into their territory as long as they meet national safety and environment requirements. Using this procedure, a Dutch importer infiltrated the Landwind  unit by unit, via Germany for sale on various European markets.

At a time when the European Commission’s road safety policy has been actively pursuing since 2001, a 50% reduction in the annual number of death on the roads by 2010, the FIA asked the various stakeholders, EU institutions, vehicle manufacturers and national type approval authorities how we could arrive at the current state of affairs.

For further information:
- Media Summary
- Pictures of the crash performance at 64 km/h: Driver and Car
- Pictures of the Conference: picture 1, picture 2, picture 3
- Presentation slides
fia_conference_29112005_release_final.pdf (53 KB)

crashtest_landwind_5.jpg (707 KB)

crashtest_landwind_4new.jpg (278 KB)

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f1970052.jpg (43 KB)

slides_29112005.pdf (1769 KB)