United States Air and Radiation EPA420-F-99-005
Environmental Protection March 1999
Agency
Office of Mobile Sources
&EPA Regulatory
Announcement
Compliance Assurance Program
(CAP 2000) Final Rule
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is adopting
regulations that reinvent the federal program for certifying that new cars
and light-duty trucks meet national air pollution standards. The new
Compliance Assurance Program, known as CAP 2000 (since
manufacturers may opt-in for model year 2000), covers passenger cars,
minivans, sport utility vehicles and pick-up trucks. CAP 2000 will save
vehicle manufacturers about $55 million a year in regulatory compliance
costs and provide more flexibility in meeting compliance requirements.
Ultimately, by improving EPA's ability to detect compliance problems
and by encouraging production of cleaner vehicles, this final rule will
also lead to improved air quality.
Background
EPA's vehicle certification program requires manufacturers to demon-
strate that new cars and light-duty trucks meet the required emission
standards prior to offering new models in the commercial marketplace.
EPA then issues a certificate of conformity 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 be streamlined sub-
stantially, with greater emphasis placed on in-use performance.
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EPA developed CAP 2000 during a three-
year discussion process with manufactur-
ers, 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-
mance of cars and light-duty trucks while
reducing overall compliance burdens. This
program reflects their efforts.
Of
CAP 2000 streamlines the existing vehicle
certification program, enabling manufactur-
ers 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 that 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.
While manufacturers will have to do less
testing of prototypes, they are required to
later demonstrate compliance by testing
more than 2000 in-use vehicles per year.
Tests will be required on vehicles when
they are approximately one and four years
old. If non-complying vehicles are identi-
fied, the manufacturer must test more
vehicles for the purpose of determining if
an emissions recall is necessary. EPA. will
likewise use the in-use data to make inde-
pendent evaluations about the need to
pursue emissions recalls. The in-use test
data, which has never before been collected
by EPA in this large scale, will be used by
EPA to enforce the standards and by
manufacturers to improve their designs.
The data will also be available to the public
and to researchers.
The final rule contains a broad-based
restructuring and streamlining of the pre-
production light-duty emission certification
program, including many administrative
burden reductions. Savings will result from
reduced reporting and pre-production
durability and emission testing require-
ments, and timing flexibilities.
Consistent with the Clinton
Administration's pledge to write regula-
tions in "plain English," EPA's new certifi-
cation regulations are much easier to read
and better organized. They will also be
much shorter, as the number of pages of
regulations are cut in half. Electronic
submissions are highly encouraged, result-
ing in even more savings.
Costs
CAP 2000 will improve air quality in two
ways. First, the increased emphasis on in-
use testing should lead manufacturers to
design and produce vehicles with cleaner,
more durable air emission control equip-
ment. Second, shifting the focus from pre-
production to actual in-use vehicles allows
EPA to direct more resources to investigat-
ing whether vehicles are actually in com-
pliance.
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The CAP 2000 program will significantly
change the way EPA and automotive
manufacturers do business together. This
program allows vehicle manufacturers
more flexibility in the timing for obtaining
a certificate of conformity and in the way
vehicles are tested for certification compli-
ance. For example:
« Technical decisions previously made by
EPA are now delegated to manufactur-
ers. Manufacturers will be given more
control over their certification schedules
(which are closely linked to production
schedules) with less EPA oversight.
• M anufacturers' te sti ng burden i s si gni fi -
cantly reduced: the number of durability
test vehicles is projected to be reduced
by 75 percent and the number of emis-
sion data test vehicles by about 50
percent.
• Manufacturers will demonstrate in-use
emission performance by testing more
than two thousand in-use vehicles per
year. EPA will use the data to identify
possible in-use compliance problems and
to confirm that the streamlined certifica-
tion process is effective at predicting the
emissions performance of in-use ve-
hicles. EPA will also be able to more
effectively target non-complying ve-
hicles for potential recall actions. The
savings derived by manufacturers from
streamlining the certification program
will more than offset the manufacturer
cost of testing vehicles in-use, resulting
in significant savings for most manufac-
turers.
For
Additional documents on this final rule are
available from the EPA Air and Radiation
Docket by calling 202-260-7548; please
refer to Docket No. A-96-50. In addition,
the rule and related documents are avail-
able electronically via the EPA Internet
server at:
www.epa.gov/oms/ld-hwy.htm
For further information about CAP 2000,
please contact Linda Hormes at:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Mobile Sources
2000 Traverwood Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
(734)214-4502
E-mail: hormes.linda@epa.gov
Additional documents about light-duty
vehicle certification are available electroni-
cally at the Internet site given above.
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