18. The expert from the United States of America introduced GRSP-51-21, reflecting the last changes proposed by the special informal working group safety (SGS) to the main text of the draft UN GTR (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/12 superseding ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2011/33). The expert from OICA introduced GRSP-51-05 proposing to delete of the square brackets from the provisions on the physical protection from high voltage. The proposals received some comments from the expert from Japan that mainly focused on the tolerances of the hydrogen container pressure (GRSP-51-21-Rev.1). The experts from Japan and EC urged the adoption of the draft UN GTR. The expert from EC indicated that a comparative analysis of the European legislation on hydrogen powered vehicles (i.e.: Regulations (EC) No. 79/2009 and (EU) No. 406/2010) against the draft UN GTR was available.

19. However, GRSP agreed to defer the adoption of the draft UN GTR to its December 2012 session to give more time for discussion to SGS experts concerning the last changes introduced and the physical protection from high voltage. Experts were invited to provide comments on the proposal (GRSP-51-21-Rev.1 and ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/12) to the expert of the United States of America, before the deadline for submission of official documents to the December 2012 session of GRSP (see para. 49). In the mean time it was agreed to seek the consent of WP.29 and AC.3 at their June 2012 sessions to extend the mandate of the SGS group until December 2012.

17. The expert from Japan, Chair of the informal working subgroup safety (SGS) and the expert from the United States introduced the most draft UN GTR on hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/23, superseding ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/12 and the final status report (GRSP-52-08) of SGS. The expert from the United States of America stated that the application of the current proposal of the UN GTR addressing passenger vehicles and three main systems: (i) fuel system integrity, (ii) electrical safety and (iii) hydrogen storage systems. The expert from the United States clarified that Phase 2 of the UN GTR would address the performance requirements of containers of any kind (i.e. liquefied hydrogen, cryo-compressed hydrogen (CcH2)) and harmonized types of crash tests (rear, front and lateral). He clarified that Contracting Parties, adopting this first phase of the UN GTR may apply crash tests standards in use in their national legislations to verify post-crash integrity of the three vehicle systems mentioned above.

18. GRSP adopted the final progress report of SGS (GRSP-52-08), as reproduced in Annex III to this report. GRSP agreed to remove the square brackets from paras. 5.3.1.2.4.3. and 5.3.2.2.3. and to recommend ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRSP/2012/23 not amended and the final progress report to AC.3 for consideration and vote at its June 2013 session.

19. Finally, GRSP expressed its appreciation to Mr. V. Blinov from United Nations Office Geneva linguistic translation services for the accuracy in translating the Russian version of the draft UN GTR.