"The European Union is introducing stricter limits on pollutant emissions from light road vehicles, particularly for emissions of nitrogen particulates and oxides. The Regulation also includes measures concerning access to information on vehicles and their components and the possibility of introducing tax incentives."

The quote above is from the Europa web site where you can see details of the changes required for Euro 5.

These changes have far-reaching implications for motor manufacturers and repairers, not just from an emissions point of view, but on how those new standards are diagnosed by both dealers and independent repairers.

One of the "measures concerning access to information" involves the requirement for repairers to be able to download diagnostic information, which gives independent repairers the opportunity to use the same software as dealers without the expense of having to buy dealer equipment, although the equipment they do buy will have to be compliant with the new legislation.

Diagnostic Associates' research and development teams have been working on Euro 5 hardware and software to make sure we can support our customers in complying with the new standards, and now have a dedicated facility at Nuneaton in the Midlands where we are validating a major client's software on their vehicles using our own and competitor's equipment.

As a result of the research work already done on the Diagnostic Associates DA CAN vehicle interface (which was designed with this in mind), we were able to start testing immediately on the Euro 5 project, knowing that our own unit exceeds the requirements of the new standard, and we already have the DA dongle which performs the same functions but with more power and in a smaller unit, needing no separate leads.

Click here to visit the Europa web site and learn more about the new standards.