Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicles Test Procedure

The Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP)^[1] is a global driving cycle standard for determining the levels of pollutants, CO₂ emission standards and fuel consumption of conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) and hybrid automobiles, as well as the all-electric range of plug-in electric vehicles.

The WLTP was adopted by the Inland Transport Committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) as Addenda No. 15 to the Global Registry (Global Technical Regulations) defined by the 1998 Agreement.^[2] The standard is accepted by China, Japan, the United States and the European Union, among others.^[3] It aims to replace the previous and regional New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) as the new European vehicle homologation procedure. Its final version was released in 2015.

One of the main goals of the WLTP is to better match the laboratory estimates of fuel consumption and emissions with the measures of an on-road driving condition.^[4] Since CO₂ targets are becoming more and more important for the economic performance of vehicle manufacturers all over the world, WLTP also aims to harmonize test procedures on an international level, and set up an equal playing field in the global market. Besides EU countries, the WLTP is also the standard fuel economy and emission test for India, South Korea and Japan. In addition, the WLTP ties in with Regulation (EC) 2009/443 to verify that a manufacturer’s new sales-weighted fleet does not emit more CO₂ on average than the target set by the European Union, which is currently set at 95 g of CO₂-eq per kilometer for 2021.^[5][6]