New vehicle safety rules: auto industry reacts to European Parliament vote

Brussels, 22 February 2019 – The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) takes note of the European Parliament’s vote on the revision of the General Safety Regulation, which mandates the safety technologies to be included as standard in new vehicles.
Yesterday’s vote by the lead Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee marks an important step towards adopting this legislation.
“We welcome the willingness of MEPs to enter rapidly into inter-institutional negotiations on this legislation, which is key to further improving road safety,” stated ACEA Secretary General, Erik Jonnaert.
Indeed, ACEA supports a broad range of the safety measures voted upon by IMCO, including the requirement that all new cars come equipped with autonomous emergency braking (AEB), drowsiness and attention detection systems, reversing detection for cars and vans, emergency stop signals, and lane departure warning systems.
However, auto manufacturers are concerned about the proposed time between the entry into force of the regulation and the moment it applies. This should be aligned with product development time in a pragmatic way, allowing at least 36 months before application, ACEA cautions.
Jonnaert: “Despite a three-fold increase in traffic, road safety in Europe has improved significantly in the last 30 years. Maintaining this trend is important for an industry that prides itself on designing, producing and selling safe vehicles in probably one of the most demanding markets in the world.”
About ACEA
- The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) represents the 14 major Europe-based car, van, truck and bus makers: BMW Group, DAF Trucks, Daimler Truck, Ferrari, Ford of Europe, Honda Motor Europe, Hyundai Motor Europe, Iveco Group, JLR, Mercedes-Benz, Renault Group, Toyota Motor Europe, Volkswagen Group, and Volvo Group.
- Visit www.acea.auto for more information about ACEA, and follow us on www.twitter.com/ACEA_auto or www.linkedin.com/company/ACEA/.
Contact:
- Cara McLaughlin, Communications Director, cm@acea.auto, +32 485 88 66 47.
- Ben Kennard, Content Editor and Press Manager, bk@acea.auto, +32 487 39 21 82
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About the EU automobile industry
- 13.0 million Europeans work in the automotive sector
- 11.5% of all manufacturing jobs in the EU
- €374.6 billion in tax revenue for European governments
- €101.9 billion trade surplus for the European Union
- Over 7% of EU GDP generated by the auto industry
- €59.1 billion in R&D spending annually, 31% of EU total