What is Vehicle Type Approval?

This page was last updated on 17th January 2024

Type Approval for Non-Road Mobile Machinery (NRMM)

This guidance is intended for manufacturers of engines for Non-Road Mobile Machinery, or manufacturers of Non-Road Mobile Machinery (known as OEMs), or those engaged in placing these products on the market in the UK or the EU.

What counts as non-road mobile machinery?

‘Non-Road Mobile Machinery’ means any mobile machine, transportable equipment or vehicle with or without bodywork or wheels which:

• is not intended for carrying passengers or goods on the road;
• includes machinery installed on the chassis of vehicles intended for the transport of passengers or goods on roads;
• installed with a combustion engine – either an internal Spark Ignition (SI) engine, or a Compression Ignition (CI) engine

Examples of non-road mobile machinery include, but are not limited to:

• garden equipment, such as hedge trimmers and hand-held chainsaws
• generators
• bulldozers
• pumps
• construction machinery
• industrial trucks
• fork lifts
• mobile cranes

Exclusions

The NRMM regulations do not apply to:

• aircraft
• certain specialist applications – military and recreational craft, road vehicles and ships for intended use at sea
• Agricultural and tractor engines are excluded from NRMM regulations, as they are covered by separate regulations.

Approval requirements engines for non-road mobile machinery

Engines for use in NRMM that will be sold in the UK or EU Member States need to have type-approval to Stage V (unless they are covered by the provisions for Transition Engines).

This applies whether the engines are already installed in NRMM or not.

If you manufacture engines for non-road mobile machinery

If your business manufactures engines for use in non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) that will be sold in the UK or any of the EU member States, you will need to have them type-approved.

If you want to sell non-road mobile machinery in the UK or the EU

If you intend to sell non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) in the UK or in any EU member State, the equipment must only use engines that have been type approved.

The responsibility for obtaining type approval rests with the engine manufacturer, and not the manufacturer of the NRMM itself or the retailer. However, when an engine is manufactured outside the EU, the manufacturer of the NRMM needs to ensure that it has an appropriate type approval certificate. This can be done either by direct arrangement with the approval authority, or in collaboration with the engine manufacturer’s local representative.

Provisional GB Type Approval

From 1^st January 2023, non-road mobile machinery engines must hold Provisional GB type approval in order to be placed on the market in Great Britain. This approval is based on the engine type concerned holding either a valid EU or UNECE R96 type approval. Learn more about the Provisional GB type approval scheme here.

UK(NI) Type Approval

Non-road mobile machinery being placed on the market in Northern Ireland must hold either a valid EU or UK(NI) type approval. Both of these approval schemes are based on Regulation (EU) 2016/1628 as it applies in EU law.

EU Type Approval

Regulation (EU) 2016/1628 sets out the requirements relating to gaseous and particulate pollutant emission limits and type-approval for internal combustion engines for non-road mobile machinery.

The Regulation requires that, in order to be first placed on the EU market, engines for use in non-road mobile machinery must be approved to demonstrate compliance with pollutant emission limits.

The Regulations apply to new engines to be installed in non-road mobile machinery, intended and suited to move, or to be moved on the ground, either on or off the road.

Engine marking requirements

Approved engines must bear the following markings:

• trade mark or trade name of the engine manufacturer
• the engine type, engine family (if applicable) and a unique ID number
• the type approval number

The mark must be:

• durable for the useful life of the engine
• secured to an engine part necessary for normal engine operation and not normally requiring replacement during engine life

The engine must be supplied with a supplementary movable plate that can be positioned, if necessary, to make the marks visible when the engine is installed in a machine.

The engine must bear all the relevant markings before it leaves the production line.

Note – engines approved according to the Provisional GB Approval Scheme should carry the marking of the underlying EU or UNECE type approval. Marking of the Provisional GB type approval number is an optional extra but not mandatory.