Changing a law in effect since 1931, Governor Justice signed House Bill 2310 which will become law in June and go into effect on January 1st, 2024. The new law will require West Virginia vehicles to be inspected only once every two years, instead of annually.
The language of West Virginia Code Article 16 is changed to: “The Superintendent of the West Virginia State Police shall require that every motor vehicle, trailer, semi-trailer, and pole trailer registered in this state be inspected once every two years and that an official certificate of inspection and approval be obtained for each vehicle.”
West Virginia vehicle inspection will increase in price from $14 to $19 “due to inflation” — so four years of safety inspections will now add up to $38 rather than $56 (a savings of 32%). Delegate Gary Howell, a Republican from Keyser (Mineral County) sponsored the popular bill.
Two years ago, Senate Bill 325 would have eliminated the vehicle inspection schedule completely. Senate Bill 325 failed to pass in 2021 due to public safely concerns, auto shop lobbying — and because the inspections bring in roughly four million dollars of transportation and public safety revenue, according to the 2021 Senate report.
West Virginia is one of only 11 states that requires annual vehicle inspections, and now it joins a group of eight states that require inspections under certain circumstances, but not annually. Thirty-one US states have no private automotive safety inspection requirement.