Briefing

Comparing proposed noise limits to current ones

June 19, 2012

The European Parliament’s Environment Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) is currently considering a Commission proposal for a Regulation on the sound levels of motor vehicles.  The proposal, if adopted, will replace the existing vehicle noise directive (70/157/EEC), including enforcing tighter noise emission limits for cars, vans, lorries and buses and updating the testing method.

The ENVI committee has come under significant pressure from the car industry to weaken the proposals.  So much so that the draft report of the ENVI Committee not only weakens the Commission’s proposal for future standards but also gives carmakers, in some specific cases, significantly more time to meet existing standards set 20 years ago. This briefing paper outlines how and what can be done to improve the new EU legislation to tackle vehicle noise.

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