Beware of the car: what to expect from the new inspection rules and the domestic auto industry

Irina Mishina

The new inspection rules, which came into force in September under a Government Decree, reduce the number of vehicle system checks from the current 82 to 55. At the same time, several new test parameters have been introduced. So, from September 1, 2022, when diagnosing an engine, "air leakage" and exhaust gas leakage bypassing the exhaust system will be checked.

Fewer inspections, more accidents?

To sum up the innovations, now it will not be necessary to present a first-aid kit, a fire extinguisher and an emergency stop sign. But technical experts will continue to pay attention to illegal tuning and unregistered changes in cars. So before the technical inspection, experts recommend bringing the equipment and appearance of the car to the factory state. In addition, the need to measure the noise of a car was canceled.

How will all this affect traffic safety? After all, about 19 thousand people die on the roads every year due to a technical malfunction of buses and cars, according to the head of the traffic police, Mikhail Chernikov. How will the cancellation of mandatory technical inspection affect these statistics?

In this regard, experts predict a decrease in road safety in the near future. For example, in the new requirements for machines during technical inspection, leakage of liquids is allowed. “Probably, the one who coordinated this understood that such cars would even come off the assembly line. Well, in the end, in addition to the new cars that will be produced, we still need to service these cars. The consumer will have less opportunity to buy quality components, and one way or another this will affect road safety”, - Dmitry Klevtsov, coordinator of the Avtomobilist public center, believes.

“The abolition of mandatory technical inspection for personal vehicles of Russians can lead to an increase in the number of accidents on the roads,” says auto lawyer Dmitry Slavnov. In his opinion, technical inspection should not be canceled, since not all drivers are able to track the condition of their car.

“There should be some kind of state control over the state of an increased source of danger that massively enters the roads. If there is no control over the cars, we will have buckets with bolts on the roads, there may be more accidents,” the auto expert believes. Dmitry Slavnov also proposes to transfer the technical inspection to the insurance company, so that its agents inspect the cars when they write out the insurance policy.

True, there are other opinions. “In many parts of the world there is no maintenance at all. It is not available, for example, in the USA, in Australia. Yes, and here, if you think about it, all their lives people bought a certificate of inspection, there were from 70 to 80% of motorists. There are now up to 15 thousand accidents per year in the country, but this figure is declining. I foresee the issue of spare parts, but I will say right away that now the problem has already been largely resolved through parallel imports. At least with non-premium class cars, there should be no problems. I emphasize that there is no catastrophe”, - car expert Igor Morzharetto told NI.

Abroad "Moskvich" will help

The issue of traffic safety also arises in connection with the prospect of creating in Russia its own Moskvich car. What, in fact, will it be made of and how safe will the new model be?

“I am skeptical that the modern automotive industry can have any kind of technological sovereignty. It is very difficult to create a car, but this car still needs to be sold to someone. In any case, these crazy costs that will be a heavy burden on automakers, and they will shift to the consumer. And cars will cost crazy money. This will again become not a means of transportation for us, but a luxury item”, - says Dmitry Klevtsov, coordinator of the Avtomobilist public center.

Recall, according to some experts, until 2025 the car market in Russia will correspond to the base case, then a gradual increase is expected to reach 2.8-3 million cars by 2030-2032, including 2.4-2.6 million cars. Among the key goals, experts name "ensuring the technological sovereignty of the automotive industry, meeting the needs of the Russian market for world-class competitive products with a high level" and also "ensuring the growth of the contribution of the automotive industry to the Russian economy".

“Yes, Russia can become an automotive power”, - says automotive expert Igor Morzharetto. - We will disassemble Chinese cars for spare parts and assemble Moskvich, albeit with an outdated design. The prospect of our car industry is the assembly of imported models. In principle, they must comply with safety requirements”.