115. (1) Every vehicle shall have a vehicle identification number and that vehicle identification number shall not be the same as the vehicle identification number of a vehicle having a model year of 1980 or later manufactured within the preceding 60 years.

  (1.1) A vehicle that is manufactured from an incomplete vehicle shall bear the vehicle identification number assigned by the incomplete vehicle manufacturer.

  (1.2) Where a vehicle identification number is stated on a label bearing a statement of compliance affixed to a vehicle and the vehicle is altered, the vehicle identification number shall apply to the altered vehicle.

  (2) Subject to subsection (2.1), the vehicle identification number of each vehicle shall

(a) be composed of capital, sanserif characters;

(b) be sunk into, embossed on or imprinted, clearly and indelibly, and in such a manner that the vehicle identification number cannot be removed without damaging or defacing the plate, label or vehicle, on

(i) an integral or structural part of the vehicle other than the dash-board pad or dash-board cover,

(ii) the dash-board or dash-board cover if it is not designed to be replaced following an air bag deployment, or

(iii) a separate plate or label that is permanently affixed in a location referred to in subparagraph (i) or (ii); and

(c) in the case of a low-speed vehicle, multi-purpose passenger vehicle, passenger car, three-wheeled vehicle or truck having a GVWR of 4 536 kg or less, be

(i) composed of characters having a minimum height of 4 mm,

(ii) located inside the occupant compartment, and

(iii) without any part of such vehicle being removed, readable through the vehicle glazing under daylight conditions by an observer having 20/20 vision Snellen whose eyepoint is located outside the vehicle adjacent to the left windshield pillar.

  (2.1) The vehicle identification number of a snowmobile shall

(a) be composed of capital, sans serif characters;

(b) be sunk into, embossed on, imprinted on or permanently affixed on the right exterior vertical surface of the track tunnel;

(c) be difficult to remove, replace or alter without detection;

(d) be composed of characters having a minimum height of 4 mm;

(e) be legible and indelible;

(f) be legible without any part of the vehicle having to be removed; and

(g) be protected from corrosion.

  (2.2) At the option of the manufacturer, the vehicle identification number may also be displayed in a bar code format that shall meet the requirements of section 5.6 of guideline AIAG B-10, Trading Partner Labels Implementation Guideline (February, 2000), except for the specifications respecting code density and dimensions, which shall meet the requirements of section 4.1 of standard AIAG B-2, Vehicle Identification Number Label Standard (June, 1988).

  (2.3) Every bar coded vehicle identification number shall be displayed on

(a) the vehicle’s compliance or information label; or

(b) a separate label that is applied beside the compliance or information label in accordance with paragraphs 7(a) and (b) of these Regulations.

  (2.4) If the vehicle identification number is displayed on a label in a bar code format, it need not, until September 1, 2012, also be applied to the vehicle in accordance with paragraph 115(2)(b), but may, at the option of the manufacturer, be sunk into, embossed on or imprinted, clearly and indelibly, on

(a) any part of the vehicle that is not designed to be removed except for repair, other than glazing; or

(b) a separate plate or label that is permanently affixed to a part referred to in paragraph (a).

  (3) The vehicle identification number of any vehicle shall be alphanumeric and shall be composed of 17 characters as follows:

(a) the first three characters, the third of which shall not be “9”, shall uniquely identify the manufacturer and the class of vehicle, if the manufacturer manufactures 1,000 or more vehicles of a prescribed class annually;

(a.1) the first three characters, the third of which shall be “9”, and the twelfth to fourteenth characters shall uniquely identify the manufacturer and the class of vehicle, if the manufacturer manufactures less than 1,000 vehicles of a prescribed class annually;

(b) the fourth to eighth characters, inclusive, shall uniquely identify the decipherable information for the vehicle as set out in Column II of Table I, except that

(i) the seventh character shall be alphabetic for a multi-purpose passenger vehicle, passenger car, three-wheeled vehicle or truck having a GVWR of 4 536 kg or less,

(ii) subject to subparagraph (i), the characters and their positioning may be determined by the manufacturer, and

(iii) in the case of an incomplete vehicle to be completed as a trailer, the decipherable information required for an incomplete vehicle in column II of Table I shall be that for a trailer;

(c) the ninth character shall be the check digit determined in accordance with subsections (7) and (8) after all other characters have been determined by the manufacturer;

(d) the tenth character shall be the code that corresponds to the vehicle model year as set out in Table II;

(e) the eleventh character shall identify the plant of manufacture of the vehicle;

(f) the twelfth to seventeenth characters shall be sequentially assigned by the manufacturer during the manufacturing process, if the manufacturer manufactures 1,000 or more vehicles of a prescribed class annually;

(g) the fifteenth to seventeenth characters shall be sequentially assigned by the manufacturer during the manufacturing process, if the manufacturer manufactures less than 1,000 vehicles of a prescribed class annually; and

(h) the fourteenth to seventeenth characters shall be numeric for all vehicles and the thirteenth character shall be numeric if the vehicle is a multi-purpose passenger vehicle, passenger car, three-wheeled vehicle or truck having a GVWR of 4 536 kg or less.

  (4) [SOR/2004-250, s. 3]

  (5) Each character used in a vehicle identification number shall be one of the Arabic numerals or Roman letters specified in Table III.

  (6) [Repealed, SOR/88-535, s. 1]

  (7) The check digit referred to in paragraph (3)(c) shall be determined by

(a) assigning to each numeral of the vehicle identification number the actual mathematical value of that numeral;

(b) assigning to each letter the mathematical value for that letter specified in Table IV;

(c) multiplying the assigned value for each character of the vehicle identification number by the weight factor set out opposite that character in Table V; and

(d) adding together the numbers obtained under paragraph (c) and dividing the total by 11.

  (8) The fractional portion of the quotient obtained by paragraph (7)(d), multiplied by 11, shall be the check digit, except that if that product is 10, the check digit shall be X.

  (9) The Minister may require manufacturers of vehicles in respect of which this section applies to submit to the Minister those characters that uniquely identify a vehicle including, where applicable, the twelfth to fourteenth characters, inclusive, that constitute part of the identifier, for each make and class of vehicle manufactured and, in all cases, the information necessary to decipher the characters in vehicle identification numbers.

  (10) If a character in a vehicle identification number identifies engine net power, the engine net power represented by that character shall not differ by more than 10 per cent from the actual engine net power.

(11) Manufacturers of vehicles in respect of which this section applies shall apply to the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association for the characters referred to in paragraphs 3(a) and (a.1) that uniquely identify the manufacturer and class of vehicle.

(12) Despite subsections (1) to (11), every vehicle having a model year of 2009 or earlier shall comply with the requirements of this section as it read on the day before the day on which this subsection came into force.

 

SOR/79-940, s. 7; SOR/82-753, s. 3; SOR/87-660, s. 5; SOR/88-268, s. 7; SOR/88-535, s. 1; SOR/92-545, s. 3; SOR/94-670, s. 2(F); SOR/97-532, s. 3; SOR/2000-182, s. 7; SOR/2000-241, s. 1; SOR/2000-304, s. 5; SOR/2002-55, s. 14; SOR/2003-272, s. 15; SOR/2004-250, s. 3; SOR/2006-94, s. 4(E); SOR/2008-72, s. 3(E); SOR/2009-33, s. 2.