As from April 2004, all right-hand vehicles imported into the UK from Japan that are less than ten years old will have to pass an Enhanced Single Vehicle Approval (ESVA) test to prove compliance with the European Type Approval Regulations. This test is primarily designed to check design and construction on ten key areas of the vehicle: seatbelt anchorage, protective steering, noise and silencers, exhaust emissions, brakes, seatbelt installations, anti-theft devices, frontal impact, side impact and CO2 / fuel consumption

All Japanese imported vehicles are issued with a deregistration Certificate before being exported from Japan. If the vehicle still complies with the Japanese Approval Regulations when the certificate is issued this document is accepted as proof of compliance with some of the European Directives. Where Japanese and European regulations differ, additional evidence of compliance will be required. This evidence would normally be in the form of a Model Report.

The SVA examiner has to check all vehicles for the ten key areas mentioned above either visually or by using equipment such as brake testers, decibel meters, rolling roads, emission analysers etc. or specialist measuring tools to ensure they all comply with the regulations. If however the vehicles carry sufficient documentary evidence to prove compliance in specific disciplines they will not need testing in these areas.