History of the UCA

The Unidad de Certificación del Automóvil (UCA) belongs to Fundación para el Fomento de la Innovación Industrial beginning its activity in 2007, it’s based in Madrid (Spain).

Specialized Technical Service in audits and approvals

Through this foundation, UCA acts as a technical service designated by the Spanish Approval Authority (Ministerio de Industria, Comercio y Turismo) to carry out various continuous verification activities that allow the approval of motorized/towed vehicles and their components, being its main function to perform initial assessment and conformity of production audits.

Accredited as inspection and certification entity

UCA is accredited by the Spanish National Accreditation Body (ENAC). ENAC is a signatory of all international agreements of EA, ILAC and IAF which allows the maximum international acceptance of accredited services. The scope of the accreditation can be consulted at the following links:

Accreditation No. 53 / C-SG104 according to the criteria set forth in the UNE-EN ISO / IEC 17021-1 standard.

Accreditation No. 509 / EI807 according to the criteria set forth in the UNE-EN ISO / IEC 17020 standard.

With extensive experience in the sector

Since the beginning of our journey, we have carried out more than 10 000 audits to manufacturers from all over the world, which have obtained approvals from the Spanish Approval Authority.

This has allowed us to collaborate with a multitude of organizations and technical services, accumulating a wide experience in the field of approvals and conformity of production and constantly studying all the legal and regulatory requirements that affect the global automotive sector.

Activities

The Unidad de Certificación del Automóvil (UCA) acts as a category C* and D* technical service for approvals granted by Spain, in accordance with the Directives and Regulations of international scope, mainly performing initial assessment and conformity of production audits for the automobile sector (passenger, industrial, agricultural, works, services vehicles and their components, etc.).

*Category C: Technical services that periodically evaluate and supervise manufacturer’s procedures to control conformity of production.

*Category D: Technical services that supervise or perform trials or inspections as part of the conformity of production control.

Likewise, the following activities are carried out, among others:

• Validation of other State Member’s approvals.
• Certification of separate regulatory acts to manufacturers for other approval authorities.
• Accreditation of manufacturer’s condition.
• CoP assessment for particular applications with serial manufacturing.
• Assessment of tachograph technical centres.
• Market surveillance.
• Conformity of production in “conjuntos funcionales”.

For more information, you can consult our procedure for the manufacturer evaluation process and you can email uca@ffii.es or call (+34) 91-6842201 to know more.

Impartiality, Independence and Confidentiality

The Unidad de Certificación del Automóvil (UCA) is an entity completely independent from the organizations to which it performs approval or inspection works and is not subject to any commercial or financial pressure that may make it dependent on third-party interests that endanger the impartiality and integrity of its actions and issued judgements.

UCA declares that neither the company nor its personnel are involved in consultancy or advisory activities for the approval or inspection clients, so no service is offered that could derive in a conflict of interest with the activities of third-party assessment offered by UCA to meet the criteria set by the approval authority.