Committee updates off‑highway vehicle definitions to accommodate modern and electric designs

Senators voted to recommend a do‑pass on Senate Bill 96, a narrowly targeted rewrite of several definitions in the Off‑Highway Vehicle Act intended to modernize the law for current vehicle designs, including electrified models.

Lobbyist Brent Moore (Polaris) and dealer and safety‑board representative Rick Alcon told the committee the act’s current definitions reference out‑of‑date measures — “low pressure” tires and engine displacement — and that only a tiny number of states still use gross vehicle weight or engine displacement as the legal trigger for classification. The bill would change the reference from gross vehicle weight to unladen dry weight, drop engine‑displacement thresholds and lift the recreational off‑highway vehicle weight ceiling from 1,750 to 3,500 pounds. Sponsors said the changes would allow modern vehicles with enclosed cabs and heavy battery packs (for electric models) to be properly classified and covered by the safety, education and registration provisions in the OHV Act.

Committee members asked about enforcement, out‑of‑state visitors using OHVs, local impacts on arroyos and roads and whether counties’ local ordinances would be affected. Witnesses said existing state registration and permitting systems and law enforcement jurisdiction would continue to apply and that bringing devices “inside the guardrails” of the OHV Act enables consistent safety training and age restrictions, rather than leaving some vehicles in regulatory limbo.

The committee approved a do‑pass recommendation; the sponsor said the change simply reflects products currently on the ground and seeks to apply the body of OHV safety requirements to them rather than exempt them.