Challenges and Opportunities for Improving the Safety of Lightweight Vehicles

There is an emerging requirement – driven by environmental targets, increasing urbanization and resource scarcity – to downsize personal transport. To support this transition requires the development of an appropriate regulatory framework. Building on earlier EU attempts to standardize rules across member states – most notably 2002/24/EC – the recent Regulation 168/2013 establishes the detailed technical requirements and test procedures for the approval of L-category vehicles (powered two-wheelers, three-wheelers and lightweight four-wheelers) and the systems, components and separate technical units intended for such vehicles. Although a move in the right direction, there remain fundamental differences between the regulation of lightweight vehicles and the regulation of passenger cars. To improve the safety of lightweight vehicles would require an innovative regulatory framework that provides benefits to consumers, producers and society. A proposal for improvements in the safety of L-category vehicles of the car-like L6 and L7 quadricycles is presented. Taking the lead in imposing new regulatory frameworks may also give rise to competitive advantages if later on the respective frameworks diffuse to other markets. In this case, companies operating in the early regulating country may gain early mover advantages in the respective technology.