What is LVVTA? It stands for Low Volume Vehicle Technical Association. The NZ Government requires that all vehicles meet applicable safety requirements. Once a vehicle is modified from its original state or is
scratch-built, there needs to be a method of ensuring continued compliance.
The purpose of the low volume vehicle certification system, therefore, is to ensure that all modified production vehicles ‐ whether modified for commercial, passenger service, disability, recreational, leisure, sporting, or compliance purposes – and scratch‐built vehicles, have been designed and constructed in such a way that they are safe to be operated on the road, and comply as closely as practicable with the legal safety requirements applicable to high volume production vehicles.
The Low Volume Vehicle Technical Association (LVVTA) create the standards to which the vehicles are inspected, provide training and support to the LVV Certifiers and produce the LVV plates.
What are typical modifications that may need certification?
Note; this list is common examples only. If in doubt read the Certification Threshold Guide or contact us.
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Scratch-built cars, kit cars, trikes, and low volume manufactured cars.
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Seat or seatbelt modifications.
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Engine re-powers with increased capacity, power, weight and different fuel or engine type.
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Engine modifications leading to 20% or more power, including addition of turbos, supercharger, different waste gates, re-chipping of computer chips on turbo cars.
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Suspension modifications, e.g. lowering under 100mm road clearance, spring changes (non-Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) items), shock absorber changes, brakes and steering modifications.
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Left to right hand drive steering conversions.
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Wheel and tyre changes (non-OEM items), e.g. wheels wider than the bodywork, or with spacers or a different offset to the OEM design. Tyres with more than 5% greater rolling circumference than the OEM tyres.
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Modifications to doors.
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Frontal Impact modifications, e.g. removal or disabling of airbags, changes to crumple zones or energy absorbing areas e.g. bull-bars may affect the frontal impact design.
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Motor home modifications.
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Cars with disability controls.
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Vans fitted with extra seats and seatbelts.
Costs
LVV Certification Inspection starts at $650.00, further costs are dependent on the type of modifications and the time it will take to inspect the vehicle and complete the paperwork. This needs to be discussed with the certifier.
LVV Recheck $210.00
If you would like further information or frequently asked questions, LVVTA have a section on their website here, that may help answer your question.
If you are looking for guidelines and will be doing the work yourself, you can work to the NZ Car Construction Manual, which was developed by LVVTA, and is incorporated by reference into the LVV Standards, which are in turn incorporated by reference in the NZ Land Transport Rules.
The NZ Car Construction Manual is available in both electronic and hard-copy. Electronic online sales can be accessed from the LVVTA Online Shop page, where the complete manual or individual chapters are available. Hard copies are available from the NZ Hot Rod Association (NZHRA).