A significant step forward for good seeing in bad weather was taken at the 59th meeting of GRE, the UN body that proposes, discusses, decides and writes the automotive lighting regulations used throughout most of the world.
After many years of effort and debate, the very old internationalised European standard for fog lamp performance, ECE Regulation 19, has been fully revised to require greater performance and better aim maintenance with less glare. The new R19 is closely aligned with a similar effort under the auspices of the Society of Automotive Engineers in the United States, where ECE Regulations are not in force.
The consensus reached was that as from the effective date of the new R19, new vehicles equipped with fog lamps will have to have the new, better fog lamps; vehicle type approvals including the old fog lamps will no longer be valid.
Fog lamps will remain optional equipment, and the old-spec fog lamps themselves will still be saleable as repair parts, but they will no longer be accepted as original equipment on new vehicles.