California Air Resources Board

CERTIFICATION OVERVIEW

To be certified, a vehicle must demonstrate that its exhaust and (as applicable, depending on the specific vehicle category) evaporative emission control systems are durable and comply with the emission standards for the vehicle's useful life. This is done through durability and certification testing of the prototype certification vehicle(s).  Compliance with on-board diagnostics, anti-tampering, fuel tank fill-pipe and openings, crankcase emissions, etc., as applicable, must be demonstrated also. An application for certification must be submitted to, and approved by, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) (and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) concurrently).

Production vehicles must be identical in all material respects to those (of the certification vehicles) for which the certification was granted; all emissions-related production running changes and field fixes must be approved.  Production vehicles must be properly labeled and their emission control systems are warranted for the specified duration. New and customer-owned production vehicles are subject to compliance testing (by either the manufacturers or CARB) and warranty repairs reporting by the manufacturers, either of which can result in remedial actions.

Certification is granted only to the manufacturer of the vehicles who controls the vehicle specifications to ensure compliance by all production vehicles. Certification can be granted to an importer only if the importer demonstrates that it has control of the vehicle specifications. As an example, this demonstration can be effected by a contractual agreement between the vehicle manufacturer and importer giving the importer the sole authority to approve any changes to the production vehicles in the certified engine/evaporative family. Importers lacking this vehicle specifications control are subject to the direct-import (a.k.a. gray-market) vehicle certification.

Violation of the requirement for certification can subject the vehicle manufacturers and/or selling dealers to enforcement actions including a fine of up to $37,500 per violation per vehicle. This fine established in 2018 is adjusted periodically for inflation based on the California Consumer Price Index (CPI). For the CPI-adjusted fine visit the California Consumer Price Index-Increased Maximum Penalties web page.

EXECUTIVE ORDERS OVERVIEW

For certification purposes, vehicles are grouped in engine families or test groups for exhaust emissions (hereinafter, engine families) and evaporative families for evaporative emissions. Within each family, the vehicles share similar designs and are expected to have similar emission characteristics. An Executive Order is issued to certify an engine family in combination with one or more evaporative families. An Executive Order is valid for production during the specified model year. Vehicles produced for another model year require another Executive Order.

Pertinent certification information is included in an Executive Order. Among the information available are the vehicle model year, engine and evaporative families, vehicle category, emission standard category, engine displacements, operating fuel, emission control systems, values of the exhaust and evaporative emission standards and certification emissions, and vehicle models.

Note that Executive Orders are issued to the vehicle manufacturers. Some manufacturers have multiple brands ("Makes") of vehicles. To find the Executive Order for a specific vehicle, you should search among the Executive Orders of the manufacturer that has the brand of your interest. For example, you should search among General Motors LLC's Executive Orders for Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, or GMC vehicles.  Other multi-brands manufacturers include [Manufacturer (brands)]: Ford (Ford, Lincoln, Mercury), Chrysler Group LLC (Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep), Honda (Acura, Honda), Nissan (Infiniti, Nissan), Toyota (Lexus, Scion, Toyota), Volkswagen (Audi, VW) and BMW (BMW, Mini).

In a multi-manufacturers arrangement between manufacturers ABC and XYZ, an Executive Order issued to manufacturer "ABC" includes both ABC-branded vehicles and XYZ-branded vehicles. To find the Executive Order for an XYZ-branded vehicle, you may have to search among the Executive Orders issued to ABC as well as XYZ.  Among the historic multi-manufacturer arrangements certified by CARB are: Daimler Chrysler Corporation-Mitsubishi, Ford-Mazda, General Motors-GMDAT (Daewoo)-Isuzu-Subaru-Suzuki-Workhorse, Kawasaki-Suzuki, and NUMMI (General Motors-Toyota).

Go HERE to view Executive Orders.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

Confirmatory Testing by CARB, Highway Motorcycles and Off-Highway Recreational Vehicles

Pre Delivery Checklist for ARB Confirmatory Test Vehicle - Highway Motorcycles, Off‑Highway Recreational Vehicles

CONTACT

For any further questions concerning the certification program, please email the On‑Road Light-Duty Certification Section.