Compliance car

A compliance car is an alternative fuel vehicle that is explicitly designed to meet tightening government regulations for low-emission vehicle sales, while the automobile manufacturer restricts sales to specific jurisdictions to meet the rules, or limits production, or both. Some jurisdictions require that auto makers offer low or no emission vehicles, a vehicle is considered a "compliance car" if it is clear that the company producing it is only doing so in order to comply with these regulations, rather than viewing them as a source of profit. This is generally identified by low production volume, sales limited to only regions where the law requires it, and low effort design.

While the introduction of compliance cars by the largest car manufacturers is sometimes explained by the companies arguing that they could not manufacture electric cars profitably and sell them for more than their cost to produce them, another mechanism could be behind the auto companies practice of releasing EVs only in limited quantities and in limited markets. They could also be facing the dilemma of the Osborne Effect, wherein sales of a current generation product are damaged when a next generation product is announced. They may also be reluctant to bring them to a wider market as announcing high-quality mass market new EV vehicles will eat into the present sales of the internal combustion engine cars they currently produce in volume, and the exclusive current source of company profits.