From July 2026, paper Certificates of Conformity will no longer be enough. Here's everything you need to know about switching to digitally signed e-CoCs.
Mandatory from 5 July 2026 — EU Regulation 2018/858
A Certificate of Conformity (CoC) is the document a vehicle manufacturer issues to declare that a specific vehicle meets all EU requirements for safety, emissions, and roadworthiness. It's what makes registration possible across EU member states — without it, a vehicle can't hit the road legally.
An electronic Certificate of Conformity (e-CoC) is the digital version of that document. Instead of a printed sheet of paper, it's a structured XML data record that contains the same technical information — weight, dimensions, emissions, fuel consumption, type-approval references — along with a digital signature that guarantees the data is authentic and hasn't been altered. You may also see it referred to as IVI (Initial Vehicle Information) in EU technical documentation.
The key difference: A paper CoC is a document you print and hand over. An e-CoC is a digitally signed data record that can be automatically validated, processed, and shared across national registration systems — no manual handling required.
A digital signature does two things that a paper signature simply can't match at scale: it proves who issued the document and it proves the data hasn't changed since it was signed.
For vehicle registration authorities across 27 EU member states, this matters enormously. Registration systems receive thousands of CoC records every day. Without a trusted digital signature, there's no automated way to verify that a record genuinely comes from the manufacturer and that the technical data is intact. Fraud, data entry errors, and manual bottlenecks become real risks.
A digitally signed e-CoC solves all of that. The signature is cryptographically bound to the data, so any change — even a single character — immediately invalidates it. Registration systems can validate the signature automatically, in real time, without a human checking a paper document.
The deadline is set in EU Regulation 2018/858, with additional implementation rules under Regulation 2024/1061. Here's how the timeline breaks down:
1 September 2025 — Member states go live All EU member states must have systems in place to receive and process e-CoC data. The infrastructure is ready on their side.
5 July 2026 — Mandatory for all new vehicles From this date, manufacturers must submit digitally signed e-CoCs for all vehicles of categories M, N, and O. Paper CoCs are no longer accepted for vehicles manufactured from this date.
July 2026 onwards — Public vehicle lookup A public-facing service lets anyone verify a vehicle's conformity data using its VIN number, improving transparency across the EU automotive market.
What about vehicles already on the road? Vehicles manufactured before 5 July 2026 are still covered by paper CoCs. The e-CoC requirement applies only to new vehicles from the deadline onwards.
The e-CoC mandate covers the three vehicle categories that account for the vast majority of road traffic across Europe.
Under the eIDAS Regulation (EU No 910/2014), two types of electronic signature or seal are permitted for e-CoC signing:
Advanced Electronic Seal (AdESeal) An Advanced Electronic Seal is tied to the legal entity — the manufacturer — rather than an individual person. It proves the document was issued by a specific organisation and that the data is intact. This is the minimum requirement under EU Regulation 2018/858 and is suitable for most e-CoC submissions.
Qualified Electronic Seal (QESeal) A Qualified Electronic Seal goes one step further. It's issued by a Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP) — a provider formally authorised under eIDAS — and carries the highest legal status available. It's legally equivalent to an official company stamp across all EU member states, meaning no member state can refuse to accept it.
Which should you use? Advanced is the regulatory minimum, but several national authorities — particularly in France, Germany, and the Netherlands — require or strongly prefer Qualified seals for cross-border legal certainty. Choosing a Qualified Electronic Seal from a QTSP ensures your e-CoCs are accepted everywhere, without exception.
Digidentity is a certified QTSP under eIDAS, and currently one of the only providers in Europe capable of performing remote identity proofing at eIDAS Level High — the highest assurance level available. This makes Digidentity a strong partner for manufacturers that need to sign e-CoCs with maximum legal weight across all EU member states.
The e-CoC must be submitted in XML format — a structured data standard that lets registration systems automatically read, validate, and store vehicle information without any manual processing.
Signing an XML file is different from signing a PDF. You can't just apply a standard PDF signature. Instead, e-CoCs must be signed using XAdES — XML Advanced Electronic Signature, an ETSI standard specifically designed for signing XML data under eIDAS.
Here's what makes XAdES the right choice for e-CoCs:
As a manufacturer, you'll be generating e-CoCs at scale — often thousands per day.
API-first by design: Because manufacturers sign hundreds or thousands of e-CoCs per day, the signing process must be fully automated. Your IT team integrates once via the standard CSC API. Every IVI v2.0 XML document you generate is then signed automatically, at any volume, without manual intervention.
If a submitted e-CoC contains incorrect data, you can submit a corrected version later. Each e-CoC record includes a technical version number, which means the receiving authority can always identify which is the most recent and valid version of the data for a given vehicle.
This version-control mechanism is an important practical safeguard — it means that an initial data error doesn't require complex administrative corrections, just a new signed submission with updated data.
Digidentity is a certified Qualified Trust Service Provider under eIDAS. We help car manufacturers sign e-CoCs at scale — with a secure API, XAdES-compatible signing, and qualified electronic seals accepted in every EU member state.
Get in touch to discuss how we can help you.