The Australian Design Rules (ADRs) are

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

's national technical standards for vehicle safety, theft resistance, and

emissions Emission may refer to: Chemical products * Emission of air pollutants, notably: **Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue ** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion ** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit radi ...

. They are largely based on and actively harmonised with the "ECE" regulations promulgated by the

World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations The World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations is a working party (WP.29) of the Inland Transport Committee (ITC) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Its responsibility is to manage the multilateral Agreements ...

, though some of the technical prescriptions of the US

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA ) is an agency of the U.S. federal government, part of the Department of Transportation. It describes its mission as "Save lives, prevent injuries, reduce vehicle-related crashes" relat ...

regulations are accepted despite differing from the ECE prescriptions. They are relate with vehicle regulation. The ADRs use only the technical requirements of the ECE Regulations; the ECE system of type approval is not used. Instead, the ADRs are administered according to a self-certification system like that of the United States—manufacturers do not seek government-sanctioned testing or

homologation Homologation ( Greek ''homologeo'', ὁμολογέω, "to agree") is the granting of approval by an official authority. This may be a court of law, a government department, or an academic or professional body, any of which would normally work ...

; rather, they certify that their vehicles and regulated vehicle components comply with all applicable provisions of all applicable ADRs in effect on the date of manufacture. On vehicles, this certification is made by dint of the manufacturer affixing a "compliance plate" stating the vehicle's specifications and parameters, build date,

identification number An identifier is a name that identifies (that is, labels the identity of) either a unique object or a unique ''class'' of objects, where the "object" or class may be an idea, physical countable object (or class thereof), or physical noncountable ...

, and other required information along with a statement to the effect that the vehicle complies with all applicable ADRs. Vehicles manufactured for sale in countries other than Australia are generally barred from import to Australia unless they are brought into compliance with applicable ADRs and the conversion work is inspected and certified by an authorised compliance engineer. According to Tristan Edis, climate reporter for ''

Business Spectator ''Business Spectator'' is an Australian business news website led by Alan Kohler as chairman and editor in chief. It is published by Australian Independent Business Media which is owned by News Corp Australia. History ''Business Spectator'' w ...

'', Australia's emissions standards specified in the ADRs lag behind most developed countries, and Australia is one of only a few major economies without fuel economy standards applying to cars.

References

{{Vehicle regulations Manufacturing in Australia Road transport in Australia Vehicle law