Iranian motorbike makers have ten months to upgrade their facilities to meet Euro4 standards and the country's automotive inspection centers are on the fast track to get new equipment so as to become able to enforce the latest regulations.
The Department of Environment's deputy director, Masoud Tajrishi, cited a lack of testing equipment as the reason for granting motorcycle manufacturers a ten-month-long reprieve from the tightened environmental standards, ISNA reported.
Under a government directive issued in 2014, Iranian motorbike makers were required to renovate their factories by March 2018 so as to become able to produce bikes in compliance with Euro4 emission standards instead of the currently enforced Euro3.
The deadline arrived with the year beginning in March and production of motorcycles was suspended when it became clear that the manufacturers had not been adequately outfitted to make Euro4 two-wheelers.
Following the suspension, Iran Motorcycle Manufacturers' Syndicate made a request to the Department of Environment to extend the deadline until December. The DOE and the government have agreed to the new cut-off date.
"In addition to the industrial sector being incapable of manufacturing bikes based on the [latest] EU standards, the necessary infrastructures to conduct tests on the produced motorcycles are lacking inside the country," Tajrishi said in his talk with ISNA on Saturday.
He said the bike makers were granted the grace period after "a technical committee assigned to the issue confirmed the lack of the required infrastructure."
As part of the government's green agenda to combat pollution, President Hassan Rouhani's administration decided to exercise its authority by regulating the notorious motorcycle production business.
***Other Measures
On April 30, 2014, the administration issued a directive setting a timeline for bike manufacturers to switch to producing Euro4 cycles, granting them four years to comply with the new standards.
A second measure taken by Rouhani and his officials was to ban production of carburetor-equipped motorbikes from Sept. 22, 2016. The objective was to replace the carbureted motorbikes with fuel-injection ones.
That replacement program has also contributed to complications facing bike makers in adapting to DOE's new standards, Tajrishi said.
A third initiative was put forth by Tehran Municipality to offer incentives for purchasing electric motorbikes.
