In mid-July 2022 the European Commission released the final report of the assessment on Regulation 167/2013 dealing with agricultural vehicles. The assessment was carried out by TRL, who has experience as consultancy in this sector, as sub-contractor of FKA.

The purpose of the assessment was to prepare recommendations on a list of items identified by the European Commission, based on discussions held during the last meetings of the Working Group on Agricultural Tractors (WGAT).

The recommendations coming out of the study are the following:

  • No action on the movement of the tractor in relation to the operator presence control when the driver is not at his/her driving position, or for the mechanisms ruling national vehicle approvals and end-of-series
  • Not action in the short term on structures of protection against roll-over (ROPS) on high‑clearance tractors (T4.1 category), for lateral stability for narrow tractors fitted with a rear-mounted ROPS: more data is required (e.g. French proposal raised at European level to have a safety standard on ROPS for high-clearance tractors) or it is too early to cover the topic (road requirements for autonomous tractors)
  • Action consisting in a liaison between CEMA and the French authorities, as identified during the last WGAT meeting held in March 2021, when it comes to visibility or exit from the cab of tractors, before drafting practical proposals
  • Action to assess proposals on non-conventional steering controls, on maximum permissible masses for 3-4 axle vehicles or on retreaded tyres
  • Action for a harmonisation at EU level on exceptional vehicles (i.e. vehicles having a width or a mass higher than the harmonised value)
  • On electric tractors, the use of the UNECE Regulation on motor vehicles (UN R100 “Electric power trained vehicles”) is considered as not applicable

The conclusions are overall in line with the CEMA views. In particular, on the last item, CEMA experts consider that if it is important to provide more technical requirements to proceed to an EU type‑approval on electrical tractors, there is a need to have specific requirements to better consider the voltage ranges used, the power provided to implements; such a work is under internal development.