116. On behalf of the technical co-sponsors, China, Japan, the United States of America and the European Union, the representative of the United States of America provided a progress report of the IWG (WP.29-166-19) on EVS. He informed AC.3 that in addition to the IWG meetings, the task force teams have been conducting teleconferences and face-to-face meetings regularly to resolve complex technical issues. However, he added that significant technical challenges are still ahead. At the last IWG meeting, the representative of the United States of America had introduced proposals aimed at improving some of the current proposed requirements and at filling in some of the gaps. He added that the IWG also discussed development of a 2-phase approach, – pending an agreement from the expert of China – that would allow the UN GTR to be completed in Phase 1 and leave the long-term research items for Phase 2. To complete Phase 1, extending the mandate by one more year might be necessary. Accordingly, he clarified that the IWG would decide on the request for extension of the mandate at its next meeting in September and if needed, a request would be made at the November 2015 session of AC.3.

117. The representative of Germany drew attention to the possible overlap of work dealing with testing battery durability in the IWGs on Electric Vehicles and the Environment (EVE), EVS and WLTP, and he noted the need to consider the best approach to testing to avoid duplication and unnecessary burden on industry. AC.3 invited GRPE to think about the issue and decided to include it as an agenda item in the next session of WP.29. AC.3 requested the secretariat to distribute WP.29-166-19 with an official symbol at its November 2015 session.