15. The expert of the Task Force on Substitutes and Retrofits (TF SR) informed GRE about their activities (GRE-88-13) and announced the next meeting of TF SR on 14 June 2023. He reported that TF SR was considering two approaches for including high power light-emitting diode replacement (LEDr) light sources in UN Regulation No. 37 and in the Consolidated Resolution on the Common Specification of Light Source Categories (R.E.5), namely “intelligent equivalence” on the light source level and “application-level equivalence”. The experts from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom supported the first approach.

8. The expert from the Task Force on Substitutes and Retrofits (TF SR) reported on their activities (GRE-90-13) and submitted draft amendments to the Consolidated Resolution on the common specification of light source categories (R.E.5) that introduced a high-power light-emitting diode replacement (LEDr) light source (“LED retrofit”) for the category H11 (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRE/2024/2 and GRE-90-02).

9. The expert of OICA highlighted a number of concerns over the TF SR proposal and installation of LED retrofits in the aftermarket, in particular the different beam patterns in the far- and near-fields of the vehicle and stressed that vehicle manufacturers would not accept responsibility for issues arising from the installation of such components (GRE-90-34).

10. The expert from France agreed with the OICA concerns and reserved his position on the TF SR proposal, while several other experts from contracting parties held the view that LED retrofits were an acceptable compromise based on the “intelligent equivalence” principle.

11. Finally, GRE adopted the proposal and requested the secretariat to submit it for consideration at the November 2024 session of WP.29 as an amendment to R.E.5. GRE also agreed that TF SR should continue its activities and focus on LED retrofits of the categories H4 and H7. GRE noted that the expert from the United Kingdom would chair TF SR, while the expert from Germany would vice-chair.