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Regulatory

Announcement

 Printed on Recycled Paper

United States

Environmental Protection

Agency

Air and Radiation EPA420-F-98-016

June 1998

Office of Mobile Sources

Proposed Compliance Assurance

Program (CAP 2000)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing

regulations that will reinvent the federal programs used to evaluate

emissions control compliance of new light-duty vehicles (LDVs) and

light-duty trucks (LDTs). This proposal redirects both the Agency’s and

the manufacturers’ efforts from pre-production demonstrations to

verification of actual in-use vehicle performance. The program should

result in a net cost savings of about 55 million dollars per year for

vehicle manufacturers, valuable compliance information for EPA, and

improved air quality.

Background

The existing vehicle certification program requires manufacturers to

demonstrate that new LDVs and LDTs meet the required emission

standards prior to every model year. EPA then issues a certificate permitting the sale of those vehicles. Given the generally stable state of emission control technology on today's cars and trucks, coupled with in-use

compliance programs, it was believed that certification requirements

could now be streamlined substantially, with greater emphasis placed on

in-use performance.

EPA developed this proposal during a three-year discussion process with

manufacturers, the California Air Resources Board, and other interested

parties. In 1996, these parties signed a Statement of Principles committing to work together to improve future in-use emissions control perfor-
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mance of LDVs and LDTs while reducing

overall compliance demonstration burdens.

This proposal reflects their efforts.

Overview of the Proposal

The new compliance assurance program,

known as CAP 2000 (since manufacturers

may opt-in for model year 2000), streamlines the existing vehicle certification

program, enabling manufacturers to save

significant time and money. In addition, it

requires manufacturers to test customerowned in-use vehicles for model year 2001

and beyond. This enhances the ability to

catch and fix problem vehicles early on,

and encourages manufacturers to design

future vehicles which are cleaner and more

durable. The CAP 2000 program also

assures that the emissions of in-use vehicles remain at levels below the current

emissions standards.

The proposal contains a broad-based

restructuring and streamlining of the preproduction light-duty emission certification

program, including many administrative

burden reductions. Savings would result

from reduced reporting and pre-production

durability and emission testing requirements, and timing flexibilities. The proposal contains a new requirement for

manufacturers to test some in-use customer

vehicles after about one year and four

years of service. The program also contains a requirement that if non-complying

vehicles are identified, the manufacturer

must test more vehicles for the purpose of

determining if an emissions recall is

necessary. EPA would likewise use the inuse data to make independent evaluations

about the need to pursue emissions recalls.

This proposal also supports EPA’s Reinventing Environmental Information Action

Plan by significantly cutting the vehicle

certification reporting burden: at least 50

percent reduction in burden, resulting in

thousands of pages of paper saved. Electronic submissions are highly encouraged

which could result in even more savings.

In addition, EPA’s new certification regulations would be shorter, easier to read, and

better organized.

Environmental Benefits

Improved air quality is expected due to

cars and light trucks operating cleaner.

Requiring manufacturers to test customerowned in-use vehicles will help identify

potential emission problems early, and will

encourage them to design future vehicles

which are cleaner and more durable.

Flexibility for Industry

If adopted as proposed, the CAP 2000

program would significantly change the

way EPA and automotive manufacturers do

business together. This program would

allow vehicle manufacturers more flexibility in the timing for obtaining a certificate

of conformity, and in the way vehicles are

tested for certification compliance. For

example:

• Technical decisions previously made

by EPA would be delegated to manufacturers. Manufacturers would be

given more control over their certification schedules (which are closely

linked to production schedules) with

less EPA oversight.
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• Manufacturers’ testing burden would

be significantly reduced: the number

of durability test vehicles is projected

to be reduced by 75 percent and the

number of emission data test vehicles

by about 50 percent.

• Manufacturers would demonstrate inuse emission performance by testing

more than two thousand in-use vehicles per year. EPA would use the

data to identify possible in-use compliance problems. The in-use test

data, which has never before been

collected by EPA in this large scale,

would confirm that the streamlined

certification process is effective at

predicting the emissions performance

of in-use vehicles. EPA would also be

able to more effectively target noncomplying vehicles for potential recall

actions. The savings derived by

manufacturers from streamlining the

certification program will more than

offset the cost of testing vehicles in

use, resulting in significant savings for

manufacturers.

Public Participation

Opportunities

EPA desires full public participation in

arriving at final rulemaking decisions. The

Agency solicits comments from all interested parties. Wherever applicable, full

supporting data and detailed analysis

should also be submitted to allow EPA to

make maximum use of the comments.

Commenters are especially encouraged to

provide specific suggestions for changes to

any aspects of the proposal that they

believe need to be modified or improved.

For instructions on submitting written

comments, please see the Federal Register

notice. It is available from the EPA Air and

Radiation Docket by calling 202-260-

7548; please refer to Docket No. A-96-50.

In addition, the proposed rule and related

documents are available electronically via

the EPA Internet server at:

http://www.epa.gov/OMSWWW

For More Information

For further information on this proposed

rule, please contact Linda Hormes at:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Mobile Sources

2000 Traverwood Drive

Ann Arbor, MI 48105

(734) 214-4502

email: hormes.linda@epa.gov

Additional documents on light-duty vehicle certification are available electronically at the Internet site given above.