After many years of discussion and negotiation within the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) and the European Union, amendments to both the ECE Regulation and the EC Directive on lighting installation were published on 24th September 2008 which mandate the fitment of daytime running lamps to all categories of motor vehicle.
Since the 1980's, numerous proposals have been put forward concerning the mandatory fitment of daytime running lamps and, although these proposals led to the regulations being amended to permit the fitment of daytime running lamps, until now, their fitment has never been made mandatory.
Proponents of daytime running lamps have often cited numerous studies from around the world which have shown significant safety benefits from the use of daytime running lamps (i.e. by reducing accident rates and accident severities in both vehicle to vehicle impacts and impacts between vehicles and other road users, such as pedestrians, thanks to improved vehicle conspicuity). Opponents of mandatory daytime running lamps have always argued that the data for these studies were derived from Northern countries (e.g. Canada and Sweden) where ambient lighting conditions are lower and that the safety benefits would not necessarily translate to Southern countries (e.g. Spain and Italy) where ambient lighting conditions are higher. Another point raised by the opponents of mandatory daytime running lamps is that they have a negative effect on the vehicle's fuel consumption and CO2 emissions due to their additional electrical energy consumption.
The arguments supporting the introduction of mandatory daytime running lamps gathered momentum in 2005 when the European Commission published the results of a new study it had commissioned into the costs and benefits of daytime running lamps. This study showed positive benefits for the introduction of mandatory daytime running lamps across Europe. Furthermore, the availability of low energy consuming light emitting diodes (LED's) as light sources for daytime running lamps meant that the effects on vehicle fuel consumption and CO2 emissions could be minimised.
In November 2007, the World Forum for the Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations (also known as WP.29), adopted the 04 series of amendments to ECE Regulation No. 48 which introduced requirements for the mandatory fitment of daytime running lamps to all categories of motor vehicle. The 04 series of amendments to ECE 48 were officially published on 24th September 2008 and, on that same day, the European Commission published EC Directive 2008/89/EC. This new Directive amends EC Directive 76/756/EEC on lighting installation to introduce requirements on the mandatory fitment of daytime running lamps by referencing the technical requirements of ECE 48.04.
The implementation dates for both ECE 48.04 and 2008/89/EC are identical and require the mandatory fitment of daytime running lamps to new types of M1 and N1 category vehicles from 7th February 2011. For M2, M3, N2 and N3 category vehicles, the fitment of daytime running lamps becomes mandatory for new types of vehicle from 7th August 2012.