The draft Order pertains to diesel vehicles fitted with a particulate filter by the manufacturer. This covers diesel passenger vehicles, diesel industrial vehicles and diesel buses.

Order of the State Secretary for Infrastructure and Public Works of ......,

No IENW/BSK-2019/*, amending the Vehicles order [Regeling voertuigen] to enable inspection of particulate filters with a particle counter and to apply certain other technical amendments.

A new permanent requirement is added to the Vehicles order stating that if a vehicle has a particulate filter, the latter must work properly. Proper functioning of the particulate filter is checked by measuring the number of particles per cubic centimetre in the exhaust.

The exhaust from a diesel vehicle with particulate filter, with idle engine, shall not contain more than 1 000 000 particles per cubic centimetre for vehicles up to year of manufacturer 2014, or 250 000 particles per cubic centimetre for vehicles starting from year of manufacturer 2015. The requirement for 250 000 particles per cubic centimetre is three to five times less stringent than the Euro-5b standard for particulate emissions of 600 000 000 000 particles per kilometre.

This draft Order is intended to set down the measurement procedure for effective verification of the functioning of particulate filters in diesel vehicles with a particle counter. This makes this test available to inspection stations of the Netherlands Vehicle Authority [RDW] and for police roadside inspections. For the time being, this requirement shall not be tested during the general periodic inspection [APK].