Vehicles in categories M1 and T

Draft Government Decrees on lightweight vehicles

Provisions for lightweight vehicles concerning the markings on driving licences and driving test vehicles would be added to the Government Decree on driving licences (423/2011). Furthermore, certain provisions of the Decree pertaining to the training required for eligibility for the driving test and the completion of the driving test would be complemented.

The Decree on the use of vehicles on the road (1257/1992) would be amended so that the maximum permissible speed on the road of a lightweight vehicle would be laid down as 60 kilometres per hour, and so that a lightweight vehicle would be subject to the same provisions on loading and on the use of snow tyres and studded tyres as passenger cars. The coupling of a towed vehicle to a lightweight vehicle would instead be subject to the same provisions as in the case of a light quadricycle, that is, a quadri-mobile. In the Parliament statement included in its reply to the Government Bill on lightweight vehicles (EV 191/2018 vp – HE 173/2018 vp), the Parliament required that the Government lay down an obligation for lightweight vehicles to use a slow-moving vehicle sign pursuant to the Road Traffic Act in force. Therefore, the Decree would set out that a lightweight-vehicle shall use a slow-moving vehicle sign.

The Government Decree on vehicle registration (893/2007) would be amended to include the provisions on the final removal of lightweight vehicles, registration plates and the registration number. The provisions would correspond to the provisions on passenger cars.

The Government Decree on the construction and equipment of vehicles (1270/22014) proposes to provide that the requirements of the Vehicles Act and the requirements laid down in § 14 b of the Vehicles Act for category M1 passenger cars are applied to the approval of lightweight vehicles for use in traffic.

The Government Decree on the approval of vehicles (1244/2002) would lay down further provisions on performing the modification inspection of a lightweight vehicle.

The Government Decree on the control of the roadworthiness of vehicles used in traffic (1245/2002) would lay down a requirement for lightweight vehicles in the T1 category to undergo periodic roadworthiness tests equivalent to passenger cars, as well as the intervals of periodic roadworthiness tests.