§535.10. How do manufacturers comply with fuel consumption standards? — Inbound Citations

(11) A manufacturer complies with the standards of this part as described in § 535.10.

This part describes the measurement and calculation procedures manufacturers use to determine annual fuel consumption performance results. Manufacturers use the fuel consumption results determined in this part for calculating credit balances specified in § 535.7 and then determine whether they comply with standards as specified in § 535.10. Manufacturers must use EPA emissions test results for deriving NHTSA's fuel consumption performance rates. Consequently, manufacturers conducting testing for certification or annual demonstration testing and providing CO2 emissions data to EPA must also provide equivalent fuel consumption results to NHTSA for all values. NHTSA and EPA reserve the right to verify separately or in coordination the results of any testing and measurement established by manufacturers in complying with the provisions of this program and as specified in 40 CFR 1037.301 and § 535.9. Any carry over data from the Phase 1 program may be carried into the Phase 2 only with approval from EPA and by using good engineering judgment considering differences in testing protocols between test procedures.

(1) Each year NHTSA will assess compliance with fuel consumption standards as specified in § 535.10.

(i) NHTSA may conduct audits or confirmatory testing on any configuration prior to first sale throughout a given model year or after the model year in order to validate data received from manufacturers and will discuss any potential issues with EPA and the manufacturer. NHTSA may perform confirmatory testing. Any such testing would be performed as specified in EPA's regulations at 40 CFR part 1037. Audits may periodically be performed to confirm manufacturers' credit balances, or other credit transactions or other information submitted to EPA and NHTSA.

(ii) NHTSA may also conduct field inspections either at manufacturing plants or at new vehicle dealerships to validate data received from manufacturers. Field inspections will be carried out in order to validate the condition of vehicles, engines or technology prior to first commercial sale to verify each component's certified configuration as initially built. NHTSA reserves the right to conduct inspections at other locations but will target only those components for which a violation would apply to OEMs and not the fleets or vehicle owners. Compliance inspections could be carried out through a number of approaches including during safety inspections or during compliance safety testing.

(iii) NHTSA will conduct audits and inspections in the same manner and, when possible, in conjunction with EPA. NHTSA will also attempt to coordinate inspections with EPA and share results.

(iv) Documents collected under NHTSA safety authority may be used to support fuel efficiency audits and inspections.

(v) NHTSA may require a manufacturer to perform selective enforcement audits with respect to any GEM inputs in its application for certification or in the end of the year ABT final reports. Any required selective enforcement audits would be required to be conducted in a manner consistent with EPA's corresponding provisions at 40 CFR 1037.301, 1037.305, and 1037.320.

(v) If NHTSA determines that a manufacturers plan is unreasonable or unrealistic, the manufacturer is deemed as not comply with fuel consumption standards as specified in § 535.10(c) and the manufacturer may be liable for civil penalties.

(6) A manufacturer that would otherwise fail to directly comply with fuel consumption standards as described in paragraphs (c)(1) through (3) of this section may use one or more of the credit flexibilities provided under the NHTSA averaging, banking and trading program, as specified in § 535.7, but must offset all credit deficits in its averaging sets to achieve compliance.

(6) A manufacturer that would otherwise fail to directly comply with fuel consumption standards as described in paragraphs (c)(1) through (3) of this section may use one or more of the credit flexibilities provided under the NHTSA averaging, banking and trading program, as specified in § 535.7, but must offset all credit deficits in its averaging sets to achieve compliance.

(6) A manufacturer that would otherwise fail to directly comply with fuel consumption standards as described in paragraphs (c)(1) through (3) of this section may use one or more of the credit flexibilities provided under the NHTSA averaging, banking and trading program, as specified in § 535.7, but must offset all credit deficits in its averaging sets to achieve compliance.