Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Definition of “Motorcycle”; Denial of Petition for Rulemaking

Riepilogo

This document denies a petition for rulemaking from GG Quad North America requesting that NHTSA redefine the term "motorcycle" so that the vehicle it seeks to import and sell, a four-wheeled vehicle with a motorcycle-like body, would be classified as a motorcycle and thus be subject to the Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSSs) for motorcycles. Currently, the petitioner's vehicle is classified as a passenger car. Since the initial FMVSSs were issued in 1967, the term "motorcycle" has been defined to exclude motor vehicles designed to travel on four wheels in contact with the ground. NHTSA is denying the petition because the petitioner has not shown that redefining "motorcycle" to include the petitioner's vehicle would be consistent with the safety purposes of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. Denial of the petition means that the petitioner's vehicle will remain classified as a passenger car. Before it can be imported, offered for sale or sold in the United States, it must meet all FMVSSs applicable to that type of motor vehicle.