The information collection requirements contained in this part have been approved by the Office of Management and Budget under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq) and have been assigned OMB Control Number 2127-0510.

(a) The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has contracted with the SAE International to coordinate the assignment of manufacturer identifiers to manufacturers in the United States. Manufacturer identifiers will be supplied by SAE at no charge. All requests for assignments of manufacturer identifiers should be forwarded directly to: SAE International, 400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, Pennsylvania, 15096, Attention: WMI Coordinator (telephone: 724-776-4841). Any requests for identifiers submitted to NHTSA will be forwarded to SAE. Manufacturers may request a specific identifier or may request only assignment of an identifier(s). SAE will review requests for specific identifiers to determine that they do not conflict with an identifier already assigned or block of identifiers already reserved. SAE will confirm the assignments in writing to the requester. Once confirmed by SAE, the identifier need not be resubmitted to NHTSA.

(b) Manufacturers of vehicles subject to this part shall submit, either directly or through an agent, the unique identifier for each make and type of vehicle it manufactures at least 60 days before affixing the first VIN using the identifier. Manufacturers whose unique identifier appears in the fourth section of the VIN shall also submit the three characters of the first section that constitutes a part of their identifier.

(c) Manufacturers of vehicles subject to the requirements of this part shall submit to NHTSA the information necessary to decipher the characters contained in its VINs. Amendments to this information shall be submitted to the agency for VINs containing an amended coding. The agency will not routinely provide written approvals of these submissions, but will contact the manufacturer should any corrections to these submissions be necessary.

(d) The information required under paragraph (c) of this section shall be submitted at least 60 days prior to offering for sale the first vehicle identified by a VIN containing that information, or if information concerning vehicle characteristics sufficient to specify the VIN code is unavailable to the manufacturer by that date, then within one week after that information first becomes available. The information shall be addressed to: Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20590, Attention: VIN Coordinator.