United States Air and Radiation EPA420-F-98-016
Environmental Protection April 1998
Agency
Office of Mobile Sources
v/EPA Regulatory
Announcement
Proposed Compliance Assurance
Program (CAP 2000)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing
regulations that will reinvent the federal programs on evaluating
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 performance. The program should result in a
net cost savings of about 55 million dollars per year for vehicle
manufacturers, while gathering valuable compliance information for
EPA on in-use cars and trucks.
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 permit-
ting the sale of those vehicles. Given the generally stable state of emis-
sion 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 commit-
ting to work together to improve future in-use emissions control perfor-
mance of LDVs and LDTs while reducing overall compliance demon-
stration burdens. This proposal reflects their efforts.
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Overview of the Proposal
The new compliance assurance program,
known as CAP 2000 (since manufacturers
may opt-in for model year 2000), stream-
lines the existing vehicle certification
program, enabling manufacturers to save
significant time and money. In addition, it
requires manufacturers to test customer-
owned 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 ve-
hicles remain at levels below the current
emissions standards.
The proposal contains a broad-based
restructuring and streamlining of the pre-
production light- duty emission certifica-
tion program, including many administra-
tive burden reductions. Savings would
result from reduced reporting and pre-
production durability and emission testing
requirements. 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 pro-
gram 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 in-use data to make independent
evaluations about the need to pursue
emissions recalls.
This proposal also supports EPA's Rein-
venting 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. Elec-
tronic submissions are highly encouraged
which could result in even more savings.
In addition, EPA's new certification regula-
tions would be shorter, easier to read, and
better organized.
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 flexibil-
ity 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 manu-
facturers. Manufacturers would be
given more control over their certifi-
cation schedules (which are closely
linked to production schedules) with
less EPA oversight.
• 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 in-
use emission performance by testing
more than two thousand in-use ve-
hicles per year. EPA would use the
data to identify possible in-use com-
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pliance 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 non-
complying vehicles for potential recall
actions. The in-use testing portion of
the proposal would add some costs
(the cost of procuring and testing in-
use vehicles), but the savings from the
certification streamlining will more
than offset this.
For More Information
For further information on this proposed
rule, please contact Linda Hormes at:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Mobile Sources
2565 Plymouth Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
(734)668-4502
email: hormes.linda@epa.gov
Additional documents on light-duty ve-
hicle certification are available electroni-
cally at the Internet site given above.
Public Participation
Opportunities
EPA desires full public participation in
arriving at final rulemaking decisions. The
Agency solicits comments from all inter-
ested 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
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