When did COC documents start?

The short answer

The certificate of conformity is not a recent invention. It came with European whole-vehicle type-approval — the procedure by which a vehicle type is tested once and can then be registered across the whole Union.

For passenger cars in category M1, that procedure became compulsory: since 1 January 1998, no new car can be registered in the EU without whole-vehicle type-approval, and therefore without a CoC. That is the date that matters in practice.

The timeline in detail

1970 — Directive 70/156/EEC. The EC type-approval framework is created. At first it covers individual components, not the complete vehicle.

1990s — extension to the whole vehicle. Type-approval is extended to the complete vehicle, first optionally, then compulsorily for new types.

1 January 1998 — compulsory for all new cars. From this point no passenger car can be newly registered without whole-vehicle type-approval. Every one therefore has a CoC.

2007 — Directive 2007/46/EC. The framework is extended to vans, lorries, buses and trailers, on a phased timetable.

29 October 2014 — full application. From here, whole-vehicle type-approval applies to all the categories concerned.

1 September 2020 — Regulation (EU) 2018/858. It replaces the 2007 directive and remains the legal basis for the CoC today.

What this means for your vehicle

The practical question is rarely „do CoC documents exist?“ but „does one exist for my vehicle?“. Three cases.

Cars built from 1998 onwards: a CoC exists. It was handed to the first buyer with the new car and has usually been lost since. The manufacturer can reissue it from the chassis number.

Commercial vehicles and trailers: here the build year matters against the phased timetable. For vehicles from before 2014, it is worth asking the manufacturer rather than assuming a refusal.

Older vehicles and classics: if the vehicle was built before the relevant requirement, no CoC exists — and the manufacturer cannot create one retrospectively. The route is then individual approval with the competent authority.

The ten-year rule

A point that is often missed: under Article 36 of Regulation (EU) 2018/858, the manufacturer owes the vehicle owner a duplicate of the certificate of conformity in paper form — for a period of ten years after the vehicle was manufactured.

Beyond that period there is no longer an entitlement. Many manufacturers still issue certificates, but voluntarily. When importing, it is therefore worth not postponing the request.

And the electronic CoC?

Since 5 July 2026, manufacturers transmit the conformity data of new vehicles to approval authorities in eCOC format. This changes nothing in the timeline above: there is no retroactivity. A vehicle built before that date has no eCOC — for an import or a lost certificate, the classic paper CoC remains the document that counts.