HD29 - Joint Study of the Desirability and Feasibility of the Replacement of Older Motor Vehicles, or Early Motor Vehicle Retirement Programs

  • Published: 1993
  • Author: Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Air Pollution Control
  • Enabling Authority: House Joint Resolution 144 (Regular Session, 1992)

Executive Summary:
The 1992 General Assembly requested a study of the desirability of providing incentives for the accelerated replacement of older motor vehicles. The Vehicle Scrappage Advisory Committee was formed, with representatives from the Departments of Air Pollution Control and Motor Vehicles, as well as interested parties from private industries. The Vehicle Scrappage Advisory Committee focused on four areas:

• Identification of the motor vehicle population that is likely to be responsible for a disproportionate share of Virginia's vehicle air pollution.

• Estimates for the cost of removing air pollution attributable to these vehicles.

• Development of a cost analysis to provide a form of "bounty" or incentive to owners to replace these vehicles.

• Development of recommendations for creating and implementing a proposed early motor vehicle retirement program in Virginia.

The work of the Advisory Committee has led them to recommend that a pilot program be conducted in the Northern Virginia area. It would be targeted at those localities subject to vehicle emission inspection and maintenance (I & M) for a period of three years.

Candidate vehicles would include those potentially eligible for I & M waivers and willing owners of pre-1981 vehicles as funds allow.

Information on several potential funding sources has been provided, but no one source has been recommended. Any funding source should allow for the $700,000 to $800,000 needed for the retirement of each 1,000 vehicles, with a "bounty" of $700 offered to the owners who retire their vehicles under this program.

It is estimated that 80-90 tons of ozone-forming pollution would be removed, over a three-year period, if at least 1,000 vehicles are retired. EPA guidelines limit the life span of these reductions to three years due to the replacement of scrapped vehicles by other vehicles which are usually driven more.

Expansion of the program could be based on funding and interest to include other I & M or nonattainment areas in the state or even statewide implementation.