E-Cert

This page last reviewed on May 31, 2011


What is E-Cert?

Manufacturers of motor vehicles and engines must show compliance with the California emission requirements before their products are legal for sale, use, or registration in the state. To show compliance, manufacturers must supply applications to the Air Resources Board (ARB) for certification of their vehicles and engines. Traditionally, manufacturers have submitted these applications in paper format. They are reviewed by the certification staff and stored at the ARB. To reduce the bulk of paper and facilitate the review of applications, the ARB has introduced E-Cert. It is an electronic system that allows manufacturers to send certification applications to the ARB. E-Cert loads these files and allows staff to review the application. Manufacturers receive an electronic notification when their application has been loaded into E-Cert.

Usage of E-Cert will eventually be required for all manufacturers seeking certification of new mobile source categories of motor vehicles and engines: passenger cars, light-duty trucks, medium-duty vehicles, on-road and off-road motorcycles, all terrain vehicles, heavy-duty engines and vehicles, off-road compression ignition engines, small off-road engines, large spark ignition engines, and spark-ignition marine engines.


Heavy Duty

  • A public workshop will be held on Thursday November 6, 2008 to present new data requirements for heavy-duty diesel E-Cert certification applications. For more information please see the workshop notice.
  • The ARB has started the process of designing Heavy-Duty E-Cert. The initial step involves gathering data requirements for the Heavy-Duty vehicle/engine category. Like other E-Cert categories, Heavy-Duty Diesel will be submitting certification applications through XML. The data requirements contains the information that Heavy-Duty manufacturers will need to supply for a certification application. As Heavy-Duty E-Cert development progresses, additional information will be posted on this page. Heavy-Duty Data Requirements (posted after the workshop)
    • This document describes the database fields in detail such as field names, description, data type, size, domain, and nullability.

Light Duty

The Light-Duty vehicle category is the next category being phased into E-Cert. The ARB has developed a website for manufacturer's to submit XML formatted certification applications directly to E-Cert. The certification applications should be formatted using the Light-Duty Vehicle XML Schema.

  • Past Workshop
    • A public workshop was held on Wednesday January 23, 2008 to present new procedures and requirements for submitting mobile source emissions certification applications electronically to the ARB for light-duty and medium-duty vehicle categories. For more information please see the workshop notice.
  • Light-Duty Vehicle InfoPath Form
    • Based on the comments that the ARB received during the workshop held on January 23, 2008, the ARB created a user-friendly form for manufacturers to enter data. The form, which was created with Microsoft InfoPath 2003, will provide manufacturers with a means of entering and saving data as an XML file. The only requirement to use this form is that you must have Microsoft InfoPath 2003 or greater, which is part of Microsoft Office Professional Edition.
    • Please review the form and supply the ARB with comments by March 31, 2008. Please forward all questions and/or comments to Rhonda Runyon at (626) 575-6653.
    • InfoPath Form Last Updated: March 5, 2008
  • Light-Duty Vehicle Data Requirements
    • This document describes the database's fields in detail. It contains information pertaining to a field's name, description, size, and domain.
    • Data Requirements Last Updated: February 28, 2008
  • Light-Duty Vehicle XML Schema
    • The XML schema is a guideline for describing how to form a valid XML document. Formatting the applications based on the schema will ensure that the applications will be processed by E-Cert. Applications not formatted correctly, will not be loaded into E-Cert.
    • Light-Duty Vehicle XML Schema Changes
    • XML Schema Last Updated: February 28, 2008

How to Use E-Cert?

Manufacturers cannot access E-Cert directly, because E-Cert is used by our certification department for reviewing applications. For the motorcycle categories, manufacturers submit XML files to E-Cert by using EPA's Verify. If you do not have an account and are interested in applying to ARB for a vehicle or an engine emission certification, please contact EPA and request a CDX account.

How to Register in E-Cert?

In order to submit an application to E-Cert. It is important that your contact information is in the E-Cert database prior to submitting an application. This serves two purposes: First, it provides our certification department a way to get in contact with you about any information that may be in the application. Secondly, it ensures that the executive order is sent to the correct person. If you receive an email indicating that you need to register in E-Cert before your application can be accepted, please contact your certification representative and they will be able to assist you.

E-Cert Computer Requirements

  • Internet Explorer 6.0+ browser

Acceptable Electronic Document Formats

  • XML

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