joakes90/vpic-database

NHTSA vPIC Curated Vehicle Database

Curated vehicle database derived from NHTSA's vPIC data, optimized for VIN decoding via the vin-decode-mcp server.

Source

Data sourced from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an agency of the United States Department of Transportation. NHTSA is a government agency and the services provided are free for use by the public as part of their Open Data initiative. No API key or registration required.

Download NHTSA vPIC standalone databases

What's Included

This is the full vPIC SQLite database with all NHTSA vehicle specification tables, including:

Category	Description
make	Vehicle manufacturers (~12,328)
model	Vehicle models (~31,869)
vehicletype	Vehicle type categories
make_model	Make/model relationships
wmi	World Manufacturer Identifiers (~12,971)
wmi_vinschema	WMI to VIN schema mapping
pattern	VIN descriptor patterns (~1.67M)
vinexception	VIN exception rules (~18,805)
vinschema	VIN schema definitions
model_years	Production year ranges
engine_*	Engine specifications (model, model, pattern, etc.)
body_*	Body specifications (style, cab, type, etc.)
fuel_*	Fuel specifications (type, delivery, tank, etc.)
safety_*	Safety equipment (airbags, brakes, ABS, etc.)
battery_*	Battery/electrification specs
transmission	Transmission types
drivetype	Drive types (FWD, RWD, AWD, etc.)

Database Stats

• Size: ~627 MB
• Format: SQLite (.db)
• Source vintage: 2026-08

Dataset Viewer

This dataset is available in the Dataset Viewer with individual tables available as separate configurations (config dropdown at top right). Key tables are also exported as Parquet for fast browser-based browsing.

Available Tables (Parquet exports)

Table	Config	Rows	Parquet Size
make	make	12,328	0.3 MB
model	model	31,869	0.6 MB
make_model	make_model	31,869	0.6 MB
wmi	wmi	12,971	0.6 MB
pattern	pattern	1,674,161	28.6 MB
vehicletype	vehicletype	9	<1 MB
wmi_vinschema	wmi_vinschema	41,708	0.7 MB
vinexception	vinexception	18,805	0.2 MB
vinschema	vinschema	25,149	1.4 MB
manufacturer	manufacturer	22,893	0.5 MB
country	country	199	<1 MB
drivetype	drivetype	23	<1 MB
fueltype	fueltype	14	<1 MB
bodystyle	bodystyle	71	<1 MB
transmission	transmission	12	<1 MB
enginemodel	enginemodel	346	<1 MB
enginemodelpattern	enginemodelpattern	2,510	<1 MB
vspecschemapattern	vspecschemapattern	16,754	0.1 MB

Usage

Download the .db file and use with the MCP server:

export VIN_MCP_DB_PATH=/path/to/vPIC_sqlite.db
vin-decode-mcp

Or query directly:

import sqlite3
conn = sqlite3.connect("vPIC_sqlite.db", uri=True)
conn.row_factory = sqlite3.Row

# List makes
makes = conn.execute("SELECT * FROM make ORDER BY name").fetchall()

Refresh Frequency

This database is rebuilt from NHTSA's standalone databases approximately every 6-12 months. Check the build timestamp in dataset_info for the source vintage.

Attribution

Vehicle data: NHTSA vPIC Curated database pipeline: vin-decode-mcp