The United States continues to use a unique set of safety and emission regulations administered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for motor vehicles, which differ significantly from the internationalised ECE Regulations used throughout the rest of the world. Vehicle manufacturers thus face considerable expense to type-certify a vehicle for U.S. sale, at a cost estimated to be upward of USD $2 million per vehicle model.
The use of ECE regulations for new cars rather than NHTSA would reduce the cost of bringing cars to the USDM, and would therefore open new options for consumers looking at new cars. This would have the potential to increase tax revenues from extra sales.