Federal regulations mandate that vehicle and vehicle equipment manufacturers comply with Early Warning Reporting requirements. One of the EWR requirements is that all manufacturers of motor vehicles or motor vehicle equipment, including low volume, tires, trailers, and child restraints, submit to NHTSA any determination of a foreign safety recall or other foreign safety campaign if an identical or substantially similar vehicle, trailer, item of equipment, tire, or child restraint is sold or offered for sale in the United States. 

Manufacturers should submit the foreign recall or campaign determination to NHTSA within five working days of the determination to conduct a foreign recall or campaign. 

Recall communications for recalls conducted in the United States should be submitted using the recall portal.

Manufacturers can submit their foreign recalls and campaign by email to frecalls@dot.gov. The recall or campaign determination should be submitted along with the foreign model (make, model, model years or identifying information for equipment), similar model sold in the United States (make, model, model years or identifying information for equipment), and rationale as to why the recall was not conducted in the United States. 

Manufacturers will receive a confirmation email with the NHTSA foreign recall campaign identification number shortly after submitting the determination. If a confirmation email does not arrive within a week, please contact us.

Assistance in Reporting

Manufacturers with questions should contact the EWR help desk at mfrewrhelpdesk@dot.gov. 

For more information on the substantially similar vehicle listing annual submission, due no later than November 1 each year, visit our EWR section.

Support Documents

We have support documents available for setting up a manufacturer account, training materials, legal interpretations, and confidentiality requests.

Data Search

The EWR Search Engine will allow searches of current and past manufacturer EWR Data submitted to NHTSA for a specific manufacturer, report type, and reporting period.