The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) formally established the Vehicle Safety Certification Centre (VSCC) on 31 March 2009. The business scope of the agency includes type approval, inspections, test facility accreditations, development coordination of vehicle safety regulations, standards and management systems, collectively known as VSCC certification.
VSCC certification covers safety-related components such as instrument clusters, glass, seat belts, tyres, lamps and lights, tanks, hinges and others. You will find a detailed list summarised below and in future also under Find my Product with further details.
The certification process requires application by a local representative (which we can provide) and testing in Taiwan according to the Vehicle Safety Testing Directions. A factory inspection is not required for foreign manufacturers.
The most important facts about VSCC certification
- Control plan (COP plan) or ISO certificates
- Evidence from the manufacturer on address, management and registration
- Authorisation letter to local representative
- Logo of the manufacturer, if available
- Data sheet of the product to be certified
- Clear descriptions of variants, if available
- Product images
- Marking information
- For gravel and sand vehicles, concrete mixer vehicles and tankers, the calculation instructions for the dimensions of the loading volume of each type of vehicle shall be provided
- For vehicles running on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the evidence referred to in Appendix 10 of the Road Traffic Regulations shall be provided
- For large passenger vehicles, children-only vehicles and school buses, seat allocation drawings must be provided
some forms - in certain cases, further technical documents may be required
- Application documents: 1-4 months depending on customer.
- Product testing in Taiwan: 1 month
- Certificate: 1-2 months
- Factory inspection, if applicable: 1-3 months after application (every three years)
- Product marking: depending on customer
- Taiwanese company required as representative (Authorised Representative). You can change at any time (we also offer this).
- Application costs: ~60€
- Test fees: ~170-360 €
- COP Check: ~150 €
- If applicable, travel expenses of the auditors: ~2,500 €
- Audit fees, if applicable: ~1300 €
- Audit support, if applicable: ~1,200 €
- If applicable, travel expenses of audit facilitator: from ~1,000 €
- Consulting fees: from ~1500 €
What is the VSCC certification for?
VSCC certification includes both mandatory and voluntary standards. The following overview already shows you the mandatory products:
- Payload counter (N3)
- Tachographs (M2,M3,N2,N3)
- Retroreflective markings
- Safety glass
- Safety belt
- Tyres
- Incandescent lamps
- Gas discharge headlights
- Direction indicator
- Fog lights
- Reversing lights
- Marker lights
- Rear marker lights
- Parking lights
- Brake lights
- S3 brake lights
- End marker lights
- Side marker lights
- Reflectors
- Door locks & hinges
- Headlights (except gas discharge headlights)
- Rear fog lights
- Rear view mirrors with reversing lights
- Fuel tank
- Manoeuvring lights
- Daytime running lights
- LED light sources
Rear marker plates for heavy and long vehicles
The products listed above cannot be exported to Taiwan without VSCC certification and would be rejected by customs. Since certification takes several months, manufacturers of these products should start early.
The mandatory product list includes 86 vehicle components, but most of them only need to be certified if they are produced locally in Taiwan. Taiwan has one of the most advanced certification systems in Asia.
What is the VSCC certification process?
As described above, VSCC certification has 5 essential steps:
- Submit application documents
- Carry out product tests in Taiwan
- Receive certification
- Marking
- Audit if necessary
In most cases, foreign manufacturers can submit ISO certificates and thus save the factory inspection. In such a case, only some inspection fees are incurred. If a factory inspection does have to be carried out, it is repeated every three years.
Frequent mistakes
There are errors in the application documents
A lot of information has to be entered manually into the online registration system, so mistakes can easily happen. However, such errors can only be corrected afterwards at a charge.
Your authorised local agent does not cooperate
Your importer can often take over this task, but in some cases this does not work out properly for manufacturers. Then you need help from a qualified service provider.
The products do not comply with the standards
Taiwanese standards are very often based on international standards, especially IEC standards. Nevertheless, there are specific differences every now and then.
The products are not marked or are marked incorrectly
Each product must be marked according to the designs in the standards and this marking must also be registered with the VSCC. Deviations from the registered format are not allowed.