Beginning with January 2026, the usage of the Automotive SPICE® trademark for issuing certificates of achievements for assessments will be possible.
Based on a registration process an assessing organization may use the Automotive SPICE® trademark and the associated logo for issuing a certificate for a result achieved in an assessment performed. The assessing organization (AO) together with the lead assessor are fully responsible for the assessment result and the correct implementation of the assessment.
The layout of the certificate can be done according to the company‘s corporate identity, only the formal elements are specified by VDA QMC. The certificate needs to be signed by the lead assessor and a corporate representative of the assessing organization. All parties including the organization assessed (OA) need to agree to register and publish the given result.
Registration of the assessment and the payment of the associated fee is mandatory for using the trademark for certificates of achievement. The process starts with submitting the application and an associated intacs® assessment log by the applicant (usually the assessing organization) containing the following information:
- Assessment information (mandatory elements of the certificate)
- Capability profile (assessed processes with associated capability rating)
- Declarations (legally relevant information, to be signed by applicant, lead assessor and representative of organization assessed)
- Other information (e.g. contact person etc…)
After checking the formal criteria and payment of the registration fee the Automotive SPICE office will send a QR-Code and registration number enabling the applicant to issue the certificate. As a last step the online validation process will be enabled, if the certificate complies to the given requirements.
Requirements for the certificates content and layout
The assessing organization (Issuer and owner of the certificate) is free to choose the layout of the certificate, if the following mandatory elements are contained:
- Automotive SPICE® Logo and the title „Certificate of Achievement“
- Name of the organization assessed (OA), short name of the project assessed
- The achieved capability level (minimum of process capability ratings)
- Scope of the assessment, assessment date
- Registration number and QR-Code provided by VDA QMC
- Name of the assessing organization (AO) with signature
- Name of the lead assessor with signature and intacs® ID
The certificate may additionally contain the logos of the organization assessed (OA) and the assessing organization (AO), if both parties agree. The certificate may also contain additional decoration elements and use appropriate fonts, provided all mandatory elements are clearly visible.
Requirements for the assessment to be registered
Assessment results can only be registered if the following prerequisites are met:
- The assessment team comprises at least one lead assessor and one co-assessor.
- The lead assessor has an intacs® Automotive SPICE® competent assessor level or higher.
- Any co-assessor has an intacs® Automotive SPICE® provisional assessor level or higher.
- All intacs licenses for the assessment team members are valid during the whole time of the assessment.
- The assessment is based on the 4.0 or higher version of the Automotive SPICE® process assessment model.
- The assessment was conducted after January 1st, 2025.
The certificate issued by the assessing organization shall contain a QR Code provided by the registration office. This provides the possibility to validate the printed certificate by any third party using QR-Code scanning.
This mechanism protects the registered certificate of achievement against fraud.
Scanning the QR-Code will forward to a VDA QMC hosted website containing mandatory information about the certificate and a detailed capability profile.
Application for registration
Registration fees
Significant improvements and optimizations have been made in the 4.0 version of the process assessment model helping you getting more substantial results and saving effort when performing the assessment. We would like to encourage the community to use the recent version as the majority of companies are doing already.
The registration is neither limited to a specific size of organization nor to a specific legal form of organization.
The assessing organization shall be a legal company. Registering of assessments done by single or private persons is not possible.
Yes, registration of a self-assessment is not possible. The assessing organization shall be an independent legal entity from the organization assessed.
In case of larger companies having an independent quality organization performing the assessment, a registration might be possible, if the organizational and financial independency is proved.
The main benefit is the possibility to use the Automotive SPICE® trademark and logo for issuing your own certificate to your customer, i.e. the organization assessed. Although a good assessment result has only a limited validity restricted on the project assessed, it is a significant achievement for an organization being assessed.
In the past the usage of the trademark and the logo for any kind of certificate was not allowed. With this registration process we enable your customer to document this achievement by an official certificate issued by you as the assessing organization.
The lead assessor is responsible for the assessment result by ensuring the correct implementation according to the requirements of ISO/IEC 33002. An organization performing the assessment (also referred as ‘assessment body’ in ISO/IEC 33001) shall ensure the basic organizational and legal framework in which the lead assessor together with the assessment team is operating.
With providing the signed application to the registration office, these parties agree to take the full responsibility for the assessment.
VDA QMC does not take any liability for the validity and correctness of the assessment result, the correct implementation of the assessment and the confidentiality of information exchanged with the organization assessed in the course of the assessment.
The information published on a VDA QMC hosted website is fully based on the information received from the assessing organization. Both the assessing organization and the organization assessed have agreed to publish the information shown.
VDA QMC will only publish information, where the publication has been agreed by both the assessing organization (AO) as well as the organization assessed (OA). Except from the detailed capability profile, the information matches what is provided on the paper certificate.
The name of the project assessed shall not allow any indication to third party companies (e.g. an OEM customer of the organization assessed). VDA QMC will check that before publication.
You can send the filled and signed application for registration to office@automotivespice.com. We will inform and assist you in any step to complete the registration.
The Automotive SPICE Office provides the registration number and QR-Code to the applicant. The registration is completed with enabling the QR-Code based validation. The applicant is informed by email when this final step is done.
There are no other documents such as confirmation letters or certificates provided by the Automotive SPICE office.
Please check the current fee structure. The registration fee is paid using the VDA QMC webshop. Once we have checked the application we will send a payment notification containing all necessary information.
A paper certificate may easily be counterfeit or faked by non-authorized parties. The QR-Code based validation enables any person to easily check the authenticity of such a document (e.g. hanging on the wall) with a smart phone or any other suitable device. Once scanning, the user will be forwarded to a website hosted by VDA QMC, showing the details of the corresponding paper certificate. If a certificate is not registered, the check will fail.
Beside that, the detailed capability profile is available on the website. The capability level stated on the paper certificate shall be the minimum level of all processes in scope. That means, an organization with nearly all processes on level 3 except only a few on level 2 will still have a level 2 certificate of achievement. Checking the website makes the gap to next higher level visible, thus may help to increase the confidence in the organization assessed.