125. The representative from Green NCAP introduced WP.29-183-19 presenting the activities and future plans of the Green NCAP partnership.

126. The representative from the United States of America shared the experience in his country, where the “Smart Way” program rated vehicles according to their environmental performance and top performers given more prominent visibility on United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) website. The tool proved to be effective for consumers and consumer organizations, such as the Consumer Reports which has endorsed the procedure developed by US EPA for their own independent environmental tests. He insisted that clear and transparent information are key to the success of such rating programs, as well described by Green NCAP.

127. The representative from the UK congratulated Green NCAP for the presentation and welcomed the introduction of a roadmap to widen the coverage, as some vehicles are already rating the maximum five stars. He insisted it would be important to include non-exhaust particles to be monitored and confirmed the continuous support from the UK in Green NCAP.

128. The representative from the Netherlands, Chair of GRPE, welcomed this Green NCAP presentation at WP.29 and the willingness from Green NCAP to use the legislative tools offered by UNECE in their test protocols. He further asked three questions on (1) non-exhaust particulates emissions on the possibility to use the procedure currently under development at GRPE, (2) the possibility by Green NCAP to look at lifetime compliance issues and environmental performance consistency over the years and (3) if the representative from Green NCAP could elaborate on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approaches mentioned.

129. The representative from the EU thanked the representative from Green NCAP for the interesting presentation and agreed that existing emission legislation in the EU had a margin for improvement, and reminded that the EU had started the process to develop Euro 7/VII legislation with a proposal to be released by the European Commission by the end of 2021.

130. The representative from Green NCAP answered that indeed non-exhaust particulates are expected to be included in the near future, and that Green NCAP is likely to use the procedure developed by GRPE once released. On the second question, he indicated that even though NCAP means New Car Assessment Program, Green NCAP is investigating durability issues with a view of including those into the rating, looking at different options such as testing aged vehicles from the fleet, using remote sensing or artificially-aged vehicles.

131. Finally, he emphasized that LCA issues are a hot topic in the present time, and could potentially add big value to the rating system. He mentioned that in the near future, Green NCAP was planning to look at including well-to-wheel fuel life cycle into the rating, instead of the present tank-to-wheel perspective. He also announced LCA consumer tool would be introduced in the course of 2022, but insisted that, to be meaningful, the number of vehicles tested would need to be higher. He also said Green NCAP expected the LCA tool to benefit from all the research and new science now being elaborated on the topic, but he saw that as a longer-term element to be included in the rating.

132. He concluded by thanking WP.29 for the interesting exchange and the opportunity to speak.