The Federal Department of Infrastructure has advised it will deploy ROVER Release 9.3 on May 21, 2025,which is aimed primarily at updating the RAV submissions processes and validations to deal with the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) requirements which become mandatory for some vehicle categories from July 1, 2025.
The new release includes the ability for approval holders to submit NVES and motive power data to the RAV, view a report of the NVES information submitted, request an update to an embargo date, and remove the requirement to add engine stroke to a Road Vehicle Descriptor.
There will also be some changes to Model Report process which will include a requirement for Model Reports to be input directly into ROVER rather than uploaded, and the Department will drop the requirement to enter engine stroke in the Road Vehicle Descriptors.
Most vehicles produced by HVIA members will have a GVM of greater than 4.5 tonnes and will be exempt from the requirements to enter data into the new fields. However, manufacturers of vehicles in categories MA, MB, MC (passenger vehicles) and NA and NB1 (goods vehicles under 4.5 tonnes) will be required to enter data in the new NVES data fields from July 1.
RAV Entry Submissions
Launching the four new NVES-specific data fields (vehicle type, carbon dioxide emissions, mass in running order, and rated towing capacity) in this release will provide regulated entities six weeks to check and adjust their systems and processes before submission of NVES data becomes mandatory (for relevant vehicles) on July 1.
The Department has noted industry’s concerns and for the relevant NVES fields, the RAV validations will not be case sensitive, will allow for whole numbers or with up to one decimal place, and will not fail validation if left blank when a field is not applicable to the vehicle.
The updated Guide to the Register of Approved Vehicles, updated XML file example and new RAV submission template (CSV file) with the NVES fields and optional motive power field have already been published by the Department.
RAV submitters can continue to use the original template until June 30if they do not wish to submit information for these new fields until July 1 (noting that the motive power field will continue to remain optional after this date).
The NVES data entered on the RAV pre-July 2025 will be removed from the RAV and won’t be counted towards an entity’s Interim Emissions Value. Users will be able to view a report of submitted NVES information in ROVER and the Department is providing this functionality as an interim solution to help industry track fleet emissions while the NVES team investigates alternatives.
Members should continue to liaise with the NVES team on NVES-related matters by emailing NVESRegulator@infrastructure.gov.au with any questions you may have.
Model Report Applications
After this release, applicants will need to enter the vehicle scope details into form fields, rather than upload documents containing that information. By collecting the vehicle scope this way, the Department says it will be able to publish it (for granted Model Report approvals) in the List of Approved Model Reports.
The Department notes that it will take Model Report applicants longer to complete a new or vary application. To assist users in the process of providing and managing this additional data, it has implemented functionality to copy and duplicate information within an application.
Outage Timeframe
ROVER will be unavailable from 4:00pm to 10.30pm AEST on Wednesday, May 21, 2025 while changes are deployed. Vehicles can be submitted to the RAV during this time, however, they will not be processed until after ROVER goes live.
The Lists of Approvals and the RAV Public Search will remain available during the outage period, same as the previous release.
For more detailed information on ROVER Release 9.3 click here.