Interpretation ID: aiam4956
AZ 85214;
"Dear Mr. Hansen: This responds to your letter inquiring about th applicability of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regulations to the alteration of previously certified new and used motor vehicles. You stated that your company is considering the alteration of motor vehicles to a hybrid version of an electric powered vehicle. In altering the current vehicles, your company would remove the internal combustion engine and associated components (including the transmission on some vehicles) and replace them with an electric battery. To accommodate the added weight, you would change the suspension and brake systems and add aluminum beams to the vehicle, however, your company does not plan to cut or otherwise change the vehicle's original unibody structure. You indicated that you believe NHTSA's regulations would only require your company to affix to the vehicle an additional label stating its modified gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) and gross axle weight rating (GAWR). I welcome this opportunity to explain our regulations to you. Some background information on Federal motor vehicle safety laws and regulations may be helpful. As you are aware, our agency is authorized under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 1381 et seq., Safety Act), to issue safety standards applicable to new motor vehicles and certain items of motor vehicle equipment. NHTSA however does not approve motor vehicles or motor vehicle equipment, nor do we endorse any commercial products. Instead, the Safety Act establishes a 'self-certification' process under which each manufacturer is responsible for certifying that its products meet all applicable safety standards. The answer to your question depends upon whether the vehicles your company modifies are new (that is, the vehicles have not yet been sold to the first retail purchaser) or used (vehicles that have already been sold to and used by the first retail purchaser). With respect to your company's modifications of new vehicles, your company would be an 'alterer' for the purposes of NHTSA's laws and regulations. 49 CFR 567.7 requires an alterer of a new vehicle to supplement the original manufacturer's certification label, which must remain on the vehicle, by affixing an additional label. This label added by the alterer must state that the vehicle as altered continues to comply with all applicable safety standards. The added label must set forth the alterer's name and the date of the alterations. In addition, if after alteration, the vehicle classification or the vehicle's GVWR or GAWR differs from the information shown on the original certification label, then the alterer's label must reflect this new information. Your letter suggests that you believe your company must simply add a label showing the modified GVWR and GAWR of these vehicles. That is not entirely correct. Your company must also certify that the altered vehicle continues to comply with all applicable safety standards. An alterer must have some independent basis for this certification. This does not however mean that an alterer must conduct crash testing, even with respect to standards that include dynamic test requirements. Certifications of continuing compliance for altered vehicles may be based on, among other things, engineering analyses, computer simulations, actual testing, or instructions for alteration voluntarily provided by the original vehicle manufacturer in a 'body builder's guide.' It may be difficult for your company to certify that the hybrid electric-powered vehicles your company produces will continue to comply with Standards No. 204, Steering Control Rearward Displacement, No. 208, Occupant Crash Protection, and the other crashworthiness safety standards that measure compliance during or after a 30 miles per hour rigid barrier crash test. The difficulty would arise because the weight your company would add to the vehicles during the alteration may result in more overall deformation of the vehicle during the crash test. To address these potential difficulties for electric vehicles, NHTSA published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on whether and how the agency should modify its safety standards to account for electric vehicles. This advance notice was published on December 27, 1991 (56 FR 67038, copy enclosed). The comment period for this notice closes on March 27, 1992. Your company may wish to respond to our request for comments on this subject. Different requirements apply if you modify used vehicles. In that case, the requirements in 567.7 would not apply, because that regulation applies only to motor vehicles before the first retail purchase of the vehicle. Hence, your company is not required to affix an alterer's label to those used vehicles you convert into hybrid electric vehicles. Instead, the relevant requirements are set forth in 108(a)(2)(A) of the Safety Act. That section of Federal law provides that no manufacturer, distributor, dealer, or motor vehicle repair business may knowingly 'render inoperative,' in whole or in part, any device or element of design installed on or in a motor vehicle or item of motor vehicle equipment in compliance with an applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standard. For your information, I have also enclosed a general information sheet for new manufacturers that gives a thumbnail sketch of the relevant NHTSA regulations and explains how to get copies of those regulations. I hope this information is helpful. If you have any further questions or need some additional information on this subject, feel free to contact Marvin Shaw of my staff at this address or by telephone at (202) 366-2992. Sincerely, Paul Jackson Rice Chief Counsel Enclosures";