Smart tachograph version 2: which vehicles need it and by when

The smart tachograph version 2 applies to three groups of vehicles. Heavy vehicles registered for the first time from 21 August 2023 already have it fitted. Heavy vehicles working outside their country of registration had to retrofit it, with the last deadline in August 2025. From 1 July 2026 goods vehicles over 2.5 t in international transport need it too.

Every deadline in one table

Regulation (EU) 165/2014 does not give fixed calendar dates for these deadlines. It counts years from the entry into force of the “detailed provisions”, which are Implementing Regulation 2021/1228, published in the Official Journal on 30 July 2021. The dates used across the industry come from that count and from the European Commission.

Vehicle	What it needs	From or by	Legal basis
New heavy vehicle, first registration	Smart tachograph version 2	From 21 August 2023	Reg. 2021/1228, Art. 2; Commission
Heavy vehicle with analogue or non-smart digital unit, operating in another Member State	Replacement with version 2	By 31 December 2024	Reg. 165/2014, Art. 3(4)
Heavy vehicle with smart version 1, operating in another Member State	Replacement with version 2	Deadline given by the Commission: 18 August 2025	Reg. 165/2014, Art. 3(4a)
Goods vehicle over 2.5 t in international transport or cabotage	Smart tachograph version 2	From 1 July 2026	Reg. 561/2006, Art. 2(1)(aa); Commission
Every vehicle with a tachograph	Inspection at an approved workshop	At least every two years	Reg. 165/2014, Art. 23(1)

Read the version 1 row carefully.

The regulation allows four years from the entry into force of 2021/1228. The Commission writes that vehicles with a first version smart tachograph had “until 18 August 2025” to replace it, and that from 19 August 2025 every heavy vehicle registered in the EU and operating in other Member States must have version 2. We quote the Commission’s dates and do not add our own day count.

The retrofit only applies if you cross a border

Articles 3(4) and 3(4a) cover vehicles operating in a Member State other than their Member State of registration. A tractor unit that only runs national routes is outside the retrofit. This is the mistake you hear most often in the yard: “since 2025 every truck needs version 2”. The text says something narrower.

Occasional trips are the trap. The text sets no minimum, so on the cautious reading a vehicle with an old unit that delivers to Austria once a year is operating in another Member State. If your fleet keeps a “domestic only” truck with a non-smart digital unit, it has to stay strictly domestic.

Outside the retrofit, the general rule of Art. 3(1) applies: a tachograph is required on vehicles registered in a Member State and covered by Regulation 561/2006. Member States may exempt the vehicles covered by the national derogations in Art. 13 of 561/2006 (Art. 3(2) of 165/2014). The driving and rest limits the tachograph measures are in our guide to EU driving hours rules.

Vans and light vehicles over 2.5 t

From 1 July 2026 Regulation 561/2006 also applies to goods vehicles over 2.5 t used for international transport or cabotage. Under Art. 3(1) of 165/2014, the tachograph comes with it.

The Commission spells it out for vehicles between 2.5 and 3.5 t and says they need the smart version 2.

The wording differs slightly. The regulation says international transport or cabotage; the Commission page adds “for hire or reward”. The exclusion for own-account transport is in Art. 3(ha) of 561/2006, on condition that driving is not the driver’s main activity. If you carry your own goods abroad in a van, start from that article and not from the Commission summary.

A worked example

A haulier in Verona runs a 3.3 t van registered in Italy, with no tachograph. Until 30 June 2026 it does hire-or-reward deliveries in Italy and Slovenia without one.

On Monday 6 July 2026 the same van leaves for Ljubljana. International goods transport, over 2.5 t, after 1 July 2026. It needs the smart tachograph version 2, and the driver must use a driver card and follow the 561 limits. Its twin van, doing local deliveries the same week, has no EU obligation.

Same company, a 2020 tractor unit with a smart version 1 unit. On Wednesday 20 August 2025 it drives to Munich.

Version 2 is required. For the Commission, the obligation applies from 19 August 2025.

What changes with version 2

A smart tachograph records the position automatically at the start and end of the daily working period and every three hours of driving. Version 2 adds the position at every border crossing and at every loading or unloading operation, and records whether the vehicle carries goods or passengers (Art. 8(1)).

One practical result: when the tachograph records location automatically, the driver does not have to enter the country symbols for the start and end of the daily working period (last subparagraph of Art. 34(7)). The exemption covers only those two symbols: the text does not extend it to the symbol entered at the first stop after a border.

Remote communication is for early detection at roadside checks. No automatic fines: Art. 9(8) rules that out. The operator must still tell drivers that remote communication is possible (Art. 9(7)). A line in the vehicle handover letter leaves a record of it.

What to do now

Start with the fleet. List every vehicle with plate, year and tachograph version, and mark the ones that leave the country even once, because those are where the retrofit actually bites. Vans over 2.5 t going abroad from 1 July 2026 need version 2 and a plan for tachograph data downloads. Tell new drivers what to do if their driver card is lost or stolen. Put the two-yearly inspection of every unit in the calendar.

What this article does not cover. Annex IC to Regulation 2016/799, as amended by Regulation 2021/1228, sets no calendar day for new vehicles: it defines the introduction date as the one set in Regulation 165/2014, which says “more than two years” after entry into force. 21 August 2023 is the date from which Regulation 2021/1228 applies and the date the Commission gives. We have not read the implementing acts on installation in light vehicles (Art. 11 of 165/2014), nor any national tolerance on retrofit checks.

The EU texts were read from the Publications Office repository, because EUR-Lex was not reachable on 15 November 2026: first in Italian, then checked against the English text.