Recital 87

(87) In order to ensure that end-of-life vehicles are treated in an environmentally sustainable manner, it is important to establish clarity on a vehicle’s status throughout its entire life, particularly in situations when there is a need for distinguishing used vehicles from end-of-life vehicles. A vehicle owner that intends to transfer the ownership of a used vehicle within the Union should in certain circumstances be required to present documentation that the vehicle is not an end-of-life vehicle. That documentation should demonstrate that the vehicle is roadworthy or provide an assessment in accordance with this Regulation, which contains criteria for determining whether a vehicle is an end-of-life vehicle. That assessment should be carried out in a cascading manner, from binding criteria to indicative criteria. As soon as one binding criterion is met, the vehicle concerned should be considered an end-of-life vehicle. If no binding criteria is met, the indicative criteria should be checked. If one of those indicative criteria apply, a further technical assessment would be necessary to determine the repairs needed to obtain a roadworthiness certificate. Based on that technical assessment, the vehicle owner should have the possibility to decide whether the vehicle should be discarded. If, within five years following that technical assessment, the vehicle owner does not obtain a roadworthiness certificate, the vehicle concerned should be considered an end-of-life vehicle. For the period of those five years, the technical assessment should constitute documentation that the vehicle is not an end-of-life vehicle. The end-of-life assessment should be carried out by an independent automotive expert, but it would be up to each Member State to decide how exactly such independent automotive experts should be appointed. The independent automotive experts should be professionals with specialised knowledge in the field of automotive technology, repair and maintenance or vehicle value assessment, appointed to provide unbiased expertise, without conflicting interests with the parties involved. To avoid excessive burdens for natural persons who are not economic operators and to target primarily the situation of a majority of potential end-of-life vehicles, the documentation requirement should only apply to such vehicle owners in specified circumstances. Such cases should concern the sales of vehicles that were declared to be an economic total loss by an insurance company or where the sale is concluded entirely by means of an online platform, without a physical handover of the vehicle between the seller and buyer or any person acting on their behalf.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-14 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.