Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act of 2015

Low Volume Car brands regulations

​The North American Low-Volume Automobile Manufacturers Act, instructed NHTSA to establish a program that allows low-volume automakers to produce a limited amount each year within the regulatory system that addresses this safety and financial issues related to limited production of vehicles, and instructed the EPA to allow small-volume automakers to install engines that have been certified for vehicles. The Low Volume Automobile Manufacturers Act is part of Section 24405 of the Fixed U.S. Ground Transportation Act.

The Low Volume Automobile Manufacturers Act was included in the Highway Funding Act of 2015 and established a separate set of rules for manufacturers who sell 325 or fewer recreation cars in the United States each year. 

​The key here is that these complete, turn key vehicles are different from the “complete car” approach that the entire low-volume industry has relied on for years. This approach relies on a legal definition that requires the vehicle to be considered only as a part before the engine and transmission systems are installed. Therefore, the small-volume market is mainly composed of kit cars, and complete chassis or near-turnkey vehicles.

Low Volume Car Manufacturers

Low-volume manufacturer is considered a car manufacturer whose annual output doesn't exceed 5,000 vehicles worldwide (including its parent company or subsidiary). The company can sell up to 325 replica vehicles in USA per year, and there is no limit on the number of incomplete kits that can be sold. It’s considered a replica when the car is similar to the body of another car produced at least 25 years ago

​These companies will be allowed to sell complete vehicles without having to comply with certain current NHTSA safety standards and without costly crash tests. However, vehicles still need to meet the emission standards of the Environmental Protection Agency and/or the California Air Resources Board through the use of modern engine kits.

Nearly sixty years later, the law established a separate way to supervise low-volume manufacturers that are still subject to the “one size fits all” regulation applicable to companies that mass produce millions of cars. frame. The legislators understood that the cars produced in 1931 were different from the cars in 2020, so they adopted the car set method and regarded cars as automobile equipment.