131. The Chair of GRPE presented an executive summary of the Technical Report prepared by the informal working group on HFCV Subgroup Environment (HFCV-SGE) that included the outcome of discussions and recommendations available in the different regions in support of the harmonization process (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2011/147). The full technical report was made available as ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRPE/2011/13. He outlined the group’s recommendation to waive the development of a stand-alone UN GTR for environmental related provisions for HFCV and its preference to amend case by case existing UN Regulations or GTRs to accommodate such vehicles or to consider them during the developing process of new Regulations. He concluded that the work of the SGE subgroup had been finalized. AC.3 endorsed the conclusions as reflected in ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2011/147. Concerning the safety related issues, he reported on the good progress made by the informal group HFCV-SGS. The draft UN GTR with safety related requirements was transmitted to GRSP for consideration at the December 2011 session. Depending on the resolution of some outstanding issues, the three co-sponsors anticipated that the draft GTR would be submitted to WP.29/AC.3 for adoption in 2012.

120. The representative of Germany informed AC.3 that the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Vehicles (HFCV) subgroup on safety (SGS) would submit to GRSP a revised UN GTR proposal for consideration and adoption at its May 2012 session. He sought AC.3’s endorsement for a six month extension of the mandate of SGS activity. AC.3 endorsed this request.

87. The representative of Germany introduced the work progress of the HFCV subgroup on safety (SGS). He informed AC.3 that GRSP, at its May 2012 session, had still considered two remaining issues:

• (i) a requirement for initial burst ratio for fiber-glass composite tanks with a pending value of 330 percent or 350 percent and
• (ii) the electric safety barrier/enclosure option.

In order to resolve these outstanding issues, he requested an extension of the SGS mandate until June 2013. The representative of the United States of America indicated that there was a reasonable assumption that GRSP, at its December 2012 session, would finalize the proposal and recommend it to the March 2013 session of AC.3.

98. Submitted for consideration and vote, the proposed draft UN Global Technical Regulation (UN GTR) (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2013/41) was established in the UN Global Registry on 27 June 2013 by consensus vote of the following Contracting Parties present and voting: Australia, Canada, China, European Union (voting for Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom), India, Japan, Norway, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, South Africa, Turkey and United States of America.

99. The technical report (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2013/42) and the adopted proposal for the development of the UN GTR (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/AC.3/17) will be appended to the established UN GTR.