Update for passenger car labels

At the end of June, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (“BMWi”) presented a draft for the – long overdue – amendment of the Passenger Car Energy Consumption Labelling Regulation (“Pkw-EnVKV”). The main reason for this is the need for the Pkw-EnVKV to be adapted to the changed EU legal framework. Since the end of 2018, fuel consumption and CO₂ values for new vehicles have had to be determined according to the new WLTP test programme on the basis of Regulation (EU) 2017/1151.

With considerable delay, the draft that has now been presented is intended to catch up with this development for the fuel consumption and CO₂ labelling obligations for passenger cars, too. In future, the WLTP values are to be mandatory. To make this easier for consumers to understand, the WLTP test phases “low/medium/high/extra high” will be translated into “urban/suburban/roads/motorway” in the Pkw-EnVKV.

In addition, the electric range of electric or hybrid vehicles is now to be shown on all documents. In contrast, the abolition of the colour-coding of the CO₂ efficiency class (currently section 3a Pkw-EnVKV) is likely to cause some surprise – especially after the EU recently introduced similar colour-coding on the tyre label (Regulation (EU) 2020/740).

In addition to appropriately revised versions of the necessary documents at the point of sale, the draft also in particular provides for changes regarding the advertising of vehicles. First of all, the BMWi is including clarifications in the Regulation that follow the consistent case law of the currently applicable version of the Regulation. For example, it is expressly stated that all advertising on the internet, including social media and video portals, also falls within the scope of the Pkw-EnVKV. In addition, the labelling requirements for advertising have been made more specific, especially in terms of form. In the future, a minimum font size of 9 pt is envisaged for advertising text – however, without reference to a specific font – whereby in the case of multi-page advertising text, the mandatory information is required on each page. Accordingly, in videos, the mandatory information must now be displayed during the entire running time of the video clip.

In addition, some specific changes are noteworthy. For example, the draft introduces a definition of a “new” passenger car that is intended to create clarity: according to this definition, a type-approved passenger car is only to be considered new if it has not yet been registered for use on public roads for more than eight months or has a mileage of less than 1,000 kilometres. The explanatory memorandum to the draft also clarifies that prototypes, for example, are not new passenger cars within the meaning of the Regulation; this has also already been expressed in case law. The draft does, however, allow provisional values to be stated for prototypes in labels and posters in accordance with section 3 Pkw-EnVKV – the question of whether this also applies to advertising with prototypes, however, is left unanswered by the draft.

The presentation of the draft marks the beginning of the consultation process with the federal states and trade associations. We will continue to follow the process and report again as soon as the procedure makes progress. It will be interesting to see whether, for example, the abolition of the colour-coding of the CO₂ efficiency class will be retained.