Section 10 establishes that verification shall be conducted to confirm A-LCA results comply with the Resolution while ensuring transparency and consistency. For levels 1, 2, 3 and 4, a critical review shall be conducted according to ISO 14040:2006 paragraph 7 with additional focus on compliance. The verification statement shall be available on published A-LCA study reports. Verification covers methodology applied, input data used, interpretation of results, interpretation of robustness, reporting in background reports, and checking numerical calculation results. For levels 1 and 2, LCA practitioners should decide whether to perform internal or external critical review; for levels 3 and 4, external third-party review is mandatory. For levels 3 and 4, verification shall be conducted at OEM level and shall include definition of the LCA group and choice of representative vehicle. Verification at OEM level shall build on verifications of suppliers’ input data without re-verifying these data. The OEM’s LCA calculation system verification shall include data collection, internal sources, assumptions, calculation processes and tools applied. In case an LCA calculation system is verified and verification remains valid, no reverification is required for subsequent LCA studies based on that verified system. OEMs and suppliers shall make system verification statements available to contracting parties upon request.

Section 7.9 establishes a representative vehicle (RV) methodology for Automotive Life Cycle Assessment. The RV is a benchmark vehicle reflecting typical characteristics of a defined group of vehicles to reduce administrative burden while ensuring comparability. RV selection excludes high-performance, off-road, and special-purpose variants, then selects based on highest technical mass among remaining vehicles within an LCA group defined by vehicle structure family, powertrain type, and production region. Upstream, downstream, and end-of-life emission factors are calculated from the RV and applied to declared vehicles within the same LCA group. Traction batteries and hydrogen storage vessels are calculated separately.

Proposal to establish a new Mutual Resolution concerning Automotive Life Cycle Assessment (A-LCA) to provide an internationally harmonised methodology for determining the carbon footprint of light-duty vehicles across all life cycle stages—material production, parts production and vehicle assembly, use, and end-of-life—considering energy use pathways from production to disposal, with a Level Concept offering four detail levels depending on data availability and study purpose, including definitions, abbreviations, system boundaries, data collection requirements, energy modelling approaches for electricity and fuels, allocation rules, waste treatment and recycling modelling using Circular Footprint Formula or Recycled Content Method, maintenance assessment, and verification procedures. The methodology applies to light-duty vehicles, uses a functional unit of 1 passenger per kilometre over vehicle lifetime, includes service life values from official data by Contracting Parties or peer-reviewed reports, accounts for discrepancy and deterioration factors in use phase calculations, addresses traction battery and fuel cell deterioration, specifies reporting requirements for all life cycle stages including biogenic emissions separately, and requires external third-party verification for Level 3 and Level 4 studies based on GRPE/86/Rev.1 through the Working Party on Pollution and Energy at its 93rd session.

OICA comments on SG4 Use Phase inputs to GRPE/2025/17 concern vehicle service life definitions, discrepancy and deterioration factors for real-world energy consumption, battery state-of-health degradation for off-vehicle charging hybrid electric vehicles, hydrogen and methane leakage quantification, refrigerant emissions from air conditioning systems, and maintenance parts replacement methodologies. OICA advocates for regional flexibility in service life determination, OEM-specific data for discrepancy factors at Level 4, standardized approaches for battery and fuel cell deterioration, and structured hierarchies for assessing maintenance part replacements over vehicle operational lifetime.