35. The Chair of the IWG on EVE introduced GRPE-69-26 on recent meetings. He provided information on the draft regulatory reference guide (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRPE/2014/13) and recommended its endorsement by GRPE. He reported that several minor changes had been suggested, but that the EVE leadership did not accept them. He presented GRPE-69-14-Rev.1 containing a proposal for a new mandate. GRPE endorsed the proposed Electric Vehicle Reference Guide, which would be submitted to WP.29 for consideration at its November 2014 session. Noting the concern raised by OICA about the wording “assuming that” as well as the position of the EC to be clarified at the June 2014 AC.3 session, GRPE welcomed in principle the proposal for the road map to develop a gtr by the EVE Group.
Speaking to agenda item 2, Ms. Marchington reviewed document EVE-09-12e with a focus on action items. Ms. Marchington detailed which action items were completed or ongoing, including:
Discussion on the new EVE mandate proposal under agenda item 4 was based on informal document GRPE-69-14.
Mr. Olechiw introduced GRPE-69-14 and the purpose of the discussion, which was to discuss continued work by the EVE IWG under a new mandate that would start in November 2014. During the EVE-9 meeting in February, 2014, there was agreement by the EVE group that continued work in a new mandate was desired; the recommendations in the Guide indicate potential future work that could be explored. Prior to the EVE-10 meeting, a new mandate document was drafted and agreed to by Canada, China, Japan, USA (EVE leadership), and it was subsequently distributed to EU and GRPE Chair for comment and submitted informally to the GRPE Secretariat (GRPE-69-14).
During the EVE-10 meeting, comments from parties on GRPE-69-14 were discussed at length; these comments are detailed below, along with the final decision by the EVE leadership on the comments, which resulted in informal document (GRPE-69-14, rev1):
Also, there was agreement that the new EVE group should maintain the current leadership structure. During the EVE-10 meeting, the European Union was unsure if they would like to be a co-sponsor of the work, so the square brackets in the text were maintained.
Finally, Mr. Olechiw reminded the EVE IWG that during the 69th GRPE session later in the week there would be discussion of the informal new EVE mandate proposal (GRPE-69-14, rev1); although formal GRPE approval of the mandate is not required, agreement by the GRPE is desired. The proposal would then be tabled for informal discussion at the June 2014 WP.29 session and formal approval at the November 2014 WP.29 session.
ACTION 2: Pending GRPE approval, the EVE Secretariat will facilitate the submission of the new EVE mandate document as an informal document for the June 2014 WP.29 session and as a formal document for the November 2014 WP.29 session.
At the time of the EVE-10 meeting, it was unclear if a future EVE meeting would be held, as this requires the approval of a new EVE mandate by AC.3. Therefore, a draft agenda was not discussed. If the new EVE mandate was approved by AC.3 in November 2014, a meeting could be held shortly after; or, pending GRPE agreement with GRPE-69-14, rev1 and advice of the GRPE Chair, the next EVE meeting could be held in the fall.
ACTION 3: The EVE Secretariat will approach the GRPE Chair for advice on timing of the next EVE meeting and inform the EVE group as required.
106. The representative of Canada recalled the progress made by the IWG on Electric vehicles and the environment. He added that GRPE had endorsed the Electric vehicle reference guide, which would be submitted to WP.29 for consideration at its November 2014 session. Following these activities, the IWG developed a draft document (WP.29-163-13) proposing the extension of IWG mandate, proposing potential new UN GTRs on Electric vehicles. AC.3 agreed to revise consideration of this item and requested the secretariat to distribute WP.29-163-13 with an official symbol.
127. The representative of Canada presented ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/88, proposing an extension to the mandate of EVE. The representative of EU introduced WP.29-164-07 expressing concerns on the drafted mandate in ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/88.
128. The representative of Canada stated that EVE had taken note of the content of WP.29-164-17 and that WP.29-164-15 included the corresponding amendments. The representative of EU agreed with the draft proposal as amended WP.29-164-15. AC.3 adopted ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/88 as amended by WP.29-164-15 and requested the secretariat to prepare the corresponding AC.3 document.
Mr. Michael Olechiw, Chair of the informal working group, welcomed participants to the meeting. The meeting was well attended, with over 20 participants from contracting parties, other WP.29 working groups, and industry organizations. In addition to Mr. Olechiw, Ms. Marchington (acting Secretary), Mr. Narusawa (Co-Chair), and Ms. Chunmei (Co-Chair, participated by phone) were present at the meeting.
Mr. Olechiw outlined the objective for the 12th EVE meeting, which was to build on discussion during the 11th EVE meeting and continue initiating work on Part A of the new EVE mandate. The goals of the meeting were to: 1) outline concepts for each topic area of the new EVE mandate, 2) finalize proposed changes to the new EVE mandate text if needed (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/88), ahead of the WP.29 November meeting, and 3) finalize the approach for Part A of the new EVE mandate outlined in the ‘path forward’ document (EVE-11-03e-Rev1).
The agenda for the meeting (EVE-12-02e-Rev1) was reviewed and accepted by all participants.
Speaking to agenda item 2, Ms. Marchington reviewed document EVE-11-13e. The EVE group was reminded of the two goals of the EVE-11 meeting, which were to discuss comments received on the path forward document (EVE-11-03e) and, if possible, confirm leads for topic areas of the new EVE mandate. The meeting was successful in that all EVE-11-03e comments received were presented and discussion of those comments was to be continued during the EVE-12 meeting. Also, for each topic area of the new EVE mandate, a party/organization volunteered to lead discussion during the EVE-12 meeting.
Ms. Marchington reviewed the status of the EVE-11 action items. Of the 18 action items, 17 were directly related to the EVE-12 meeting and therefore would be completed once the meeting had occurred. The remaining action item is ongoing and depended on the outcome of the EVE-12 meeting:
ACTION 1 (EVE-11 Action 17, ongoing): The EVE Secretary will complete minor revisions (if needed) to ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/88 after the EVE-12 meeting, prior to the November 2014 WP.29 meeting.
To summarize the discussion of agenda items 4-8, Mr. Olechiw presented document EVE-12-11e, which presents the five topics under consideration for the new EVE mandate, major discussion points, and three options: maintain in the EVE mandate, modify in the EVE mandate, or remove from the EVE mandate. For each topic, the group discussed the options and decided on the preferable outcome (highlighted in red text in the document). The outcome of this discussion is summarized as follows:
Based on the above discussion, the EVE group considered the European Commission’s proposed changes (EVE-11-09e) to the new EVE mandate (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/88). In preparation for the November 2014 WP.29 session and anticipated approval of ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/88, a new EVE-12 informal document (EVE-12-12e) was drafted. The EVE group agreed in principle to the changes presented in EVE-12-12e, but were requested to provide any further comments to the EVE Secretariat November 4, 2014. The intention of the EVE Secretariat was then to submit EVE-12-12e to the November WP.29 session as an informal document that would amend (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/88).
ACTION 4: The EVE group will provide feedback to the EVE Secretariat on EVE-12-12e by November 4, 2014.
ACTION 5: The EVE Secretariat will submit EVE-12-12e as an informal document for consideration by WP.29 with ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/88.
Following on the above, the group initiated discussion on the path forward document (EVE-11-03e-Rev1). However, due to a lack of time, it was decided that this document, along with the European Commission’s comments (EVE-11-10e) would be further discussed at the next meeting. The EVE Secretary agreed to edit the document to incorporate the changes to the new EVE mandate outlined in EVE-12-12e.
ACTION 6: The EVE Secretariat will edit document EVE-11-03e-Rev1 to incorporate the changes to the new EVE mandate outlined in EVE-12-12e and add this issue to the next EVE meeting agenda.
Speaking to agenda item 2, Ms. Marchington reviewed two decisions from the 164th WP.29 meeting relevant to the EVE group: 1) the new EVE mandate, ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/88 as amended by WP.29-164-15, was approved, and 2) the final version of the EVE reference Guide, ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/81, was also approved.
Concerning the Guide, the WP.29 Secretariat requested the EVE group to consider how the Guide should be filed on the UNECE website and presented two proposals: 1) The Guide could receive a new document number and be placed in the folder “Final documents”; or, 2) The Guide could be kept with the current symbol and be placed under “Reference material”, as well as on the homepage of WP.29 website. No preference for either proposal was expressed by the EVE group. The EVE leadership expressed a preference for option 2 and committed to following up with the WP.29 Secretariat.
ACTION 1: The EVE Secretary will inform the WP.29 Secretariat that the second proposal for filing the Guide on the UNECE website is preferable.
Mr. Olechiw introduced document EVE-13-06e, which details a roadmap for Part A of the new EVE mandate. He explained to the group that the roadmap was drafted using information from the new EVE mandate document (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/88 as amended by WP.29-164-15) and that it will be adjusted to include the work plans presented during agenda item 5. The future EVE meetings planned for Part A of the roadmap were also discussed. The EVE-14 meeting was proposed to be either a face-to-face meeting in Ottawa or a video-conference meeting; there was no preference expressed by the group, so the EVE leadership will continue to discuss these options. The EVE group was requested to avoid the first two weeks of April for the EVE-14 meeting, due to the Easter holiday and a WLTP IWG meeting. Also, the fall EVE-16 meeting could also be a face-to-face meeting and is tentatively scheduled to be hosted by China; confirmation of this meeting location and date will be completed at the next EVE meeting. Concerning the informal GRPE discussion on the workplan and requests for GTR development, the GRPE Secretariat confirmed that informal approval by GRPE (scheduled for June 2016) was sufficient.
ACTION 9: The EVE leadership will determine the location (Ottawa or video-conference) and date of the EVE-14 meeting and communicate this to the EVE group by early February 2015.
ACTION 9: The EVE group will continue to discuss the location and timing of the EVE-16 meeting and confirm the details during the EVE-14 meeting.
ACTION 10: The EVE Secretary will adjust the roadmap (EVE-13-06e) to include the workplans presented during agenda item 5.
ACTION 11: The EVE Secretary will revise and post the draft agenda and related documents for the EVE-14 meeting on the UNECE EVE website.