LEGISLATION
A year after the UK government began a consultation period on the question of whether or not to extend the period of the first MOT for cars and motorcycles from three years to four years, Jesse Norman MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Roads, Local Transport and Devolution has announced that the government is keeping the three-year first MOT policy we currently have:
At the start of August the National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) started an online petition calling for a complete ban on the sale of part-worn tyres. The move follows inspections carried out over several years into the sale of part-worn tyres, which show serious safety breaches are common.
With a headline like that, you could be forgiven for thinking that this month’s column refers to the ongoing geopolitical sabre rattling taking place between China’s North Korean neighbours and the USA. However, as important as the hint of nuclear escalation is, here we focus on how the overheating Chinese tyre market is as close as it has ever been to boiling over. Two key subjects have raised the temperature in the People’s Republic during the last month or so: The European Commission’s (EC) decision to initiate an anti-dumping investigation against Chinese-produced truck and bus tyres; and the even more imminent effects of local environmental emissions investigations within China itself, which have led to the suspension and even closure of numerous businesses in the country (see below).
The UK government has decided to ban the sale of both new petrol and new diesel cars from 2040. The goal isn’t as ambitious as Norway’s, which aims to do the same by 2025. India thinks it can do it by 2031. And France is on par with the UK, also aiming to ban sales of new combustion engine-based cars by 2040. However, in the UK at least, electric cars sales currently represent less than 1 per cent of new registrations. Therefore a lot has to happen between now and 2040 for this new rule to become reality. What is clear is that there is now real legislative momentum in favour of electric vehicles in the UK and that this will have an inevitable impact on OE suppliers, and in turn the UK replacement tyre market, especially in three key areas: weight, torque and rolling resistance.
Today the government launched its “UK plan for tackling roadside nitrogen dioxide concentrations”. And with it came the decision to ban the sale of both new petrol and new diesel cars from 2040. However, electric cars sales currently represent less than 1 per cent of new registrations. Therefore a lot has to happen between now and 2040 for this new rule to become reality. What is clear is that there is now real legislative momentum in favour of electric vehicles in the UK and that this will have an inevitable impact on OE suppliers and in turn the UK replacement tyre market.
A global survey from LeasePlan – one of the world’s largest vehicle management groups – reveals that nearly three-quarters (74 per cent) of drivers admit to using their mobile phone behind the wheel, one-fifth (20 per cent) claim to send text messages and almost one-in-ten (9 per cent) admit to using social media.
RMI Bodyshops (NAB & VBRA) has written to a select group of MEP´s requesting support in improving the legal framework for competitive repair and maintenance of automotive vehicles.
Jason Moseley, director of RMI Bodyshops commented: “We believe that the legal framework for competitive Repair and Maintenance Information needs improving. We have written to MEPs and also asked our members to get involved and write to their committee MEPs, so there is a very strong and aligned message sent from the body repair sector.”
As a business, maintaining a legislatively compliant fleet of commercial vehicles is the cornerstone of a successful logistics operation. Type-approval is the automotive EU directive that governs this compliance across the continent and partially, the UK. Type-approval is especially important for emissions components that are installed on a vehicle, guaranteeing product quality, performance and compliant levels of emissions. However, the introduction of on-the-spot checks for vehicle compliance in Europe over the next few years highlights a deficiency in UK type-approval legislation, which presents a risk to businesses whose vehicles are not fully type-approved.
The Korean Ministry of Environment has announced that domestic and overseas tyre manufacturers will be obliged to indicate the noise level of their products from 2019. The policy announced in Korea on Monday follows the E.U. standards as well, the ministry said, and will be applied to tiyes on passenger vehicles starting in 2019, and […]
Ever since her 18 year old son Michael was killed in a coach crash on the A3 in Surrey in September 2012. Liverpool-based Frances Molloy has spent the past four years campaigning for legislation to be passed on the condition and age of tyres. The accident was caused by the explosion of a tyre that was found to be second hand and 19 and a half years old.
Harley-Davidson is paying US authorities $12m (£9m) to settle allegations its motorbikes polluted the air at higher levels than allowed. It has also been ordered to stop selling “super tuners”, devices that enable motorbikes to generate power but also increases emissions.
“The NFDA is concerned with the new National Living Wage and the impacts that it might have on businesses”, said Sue Robinson, director of the National Franchised Dealers Association which represents commercial vehicle and franchised car retailers across the UK.
A simple “trick” – or perhaps we should say “cheating” or “fraud” – has been common practice in the European automotive industry, to the displeasure of environmental organisations: Place a car with excessive tyre pressure on a dynamometer and – voilà – lower fuel consumption levels and emissions are recorded thanks to the ‘optimised’ rolling resistance. Mitsubishi has conceded carrying out this practice in Japan with test data submitted to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. This time round it doesn’t affect, as in the case of Volkswagen and its ‘cheat’ software, millions of vehicles, rather ‘only’ 625,000 small cars, the majority of these off-take production for Nissan.
Ireland’s Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport has introduced a new rule that will see motorists in the Republic receive a fine and/or penalty points for driving a vehicle with defective or worn tyres. The Fixed Charge Notice rule came into effect yesterday and adds teeth to the existing rules on driving with defective or worn tyres; drivers will now be fined €80 and have two penalty points endorsed on their licence upon payment of the fine, or will be given four penalty points following conviction in court.
Last month, talk of tyre testing irregularities came to the fore following Nokian’s admissions of “mistakes” in this area. In the April edition of Tyres & Accessories we follow up on this story in some detail with a survey of leading manufacturers’ responses to the issue of the day and an exclusive interview with Nokian president and CEO Ari Lehtoranta. While the detailed views of the world’s leading tyre makers are many and varied, they are all unified in their denials of any underhand behaviour relating to magazine and association tyre testing (see “Top tyre manufacturers deny involvement in tyre test manipulation” for the full story). And yet Nokian’s Lehtoranta has clearly pointed the finger at the broader industry on a number of occasions in the past – and apparently is continuing to do so.
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