Is there a deadline to comply with ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0?

No. Auto Care released ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0 on April 2, 2026, but its public guidance does not set one universal compliance deadline. Your timing depends on when each customer, distributor, retailer or data service will accept or require the new files, so confirm dates with every recipient.

Can we keep sending ACES 4.2 and PIES 7.2 for now?

Possibly, for a limited period. Auto Care continues to list ACES 4.2 and PIES 7.2 as supported previous versions, but each recipient sets its own intake requirements. Keep sending them only where the partner confirms acceptance, and plan parallel output if different recipients move on different dates.

Do we need to replatform to support the new standards?

No. A schema update does not by itself require a commerce replatform. You may need to update PIM fields, mappings, parsers, imports, exports, APIs and storefront presentation. In Virto Commerce, ACES and PIES parsing and validation remain upstream; the commerce layer consumes, stores and indexes the records those systems publish.

What happens if our catalog data doesn't meet the new standard?

Files that fail required schema or partner validation may be rejected. Records that reach the catalog with missing or incorrectly mapped fields can produce incomplete listings, stale applications, missing media or fitment gaps, increasing manual correction work and the risk of wrong-fit returns.

What is the first step to prepare for the migration?

Start with a version and ownership inventory. Record every system and partner that creates, processes, receives or displays ACES and PIES data, the versions each accepts, and who owns the mappings, validation and release decisions. That inventory shows where the migration work sits.

Home Virto Commerce blog ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0: What's Changing and How to Prepare

ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0: What's Changing and How to Prepare

Written by Marina Conquest

Today •9 min

ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0 are the latest versions of the automotive aftermarket's principal standards for auto parts fitment and product information. The Auto Care Association has released both, introducing new ways to communicate digital assets, multilingual labels, packaging configurations and regulatory information between trading partners.

For companies that produce or receive ACES and PIES files, the release creates a practical job. Existing data models, mappings and integrations must be compared with the new schemas. Suppliers also need to establish when each customer or data receiver plans to accept the new versions. There is no single public deadline that settles the question for everyone.

💡 Who this guide is for: Auto-parts manufacturers and brands, distributors and warehouse distributors, catalog and PIM owners, ecommerce leaders and the technology teams responsible for exchanging aftermarket product data.

The Short Version

What is new: ACES 5.0 expands support for application-specific digital assets and multilingual labels. PIES 8.0 adds packaging, regulatory and digital-asset capabilities.
Who is affected: Any business that creates, processes, receives or displays ACES and PIES data.
When to act: The versions are available now, but acceptance dates can differ between trading partners.
First step: Record which standard versions every internal system and external partner currently produces or accepts.

What Is ACES 5.0?

ACES 5.0 is the current version of the Aftermarket Catalog Exchange Standard, the automotive aftermarket standard for communicating auto parts fitment data. It gives trading partners a shared structure for recording which part applies to which vehicle or equipment configuration. The previous version is ACES 4.2.

The Auto Care Association's ACES documentation describes a standard supported by relational databases containing codified vehicle and equipment attributes, qualifier statements, product classifications and brands. A Year-Make-Model lookup is a familiar customer-facing expression of that data, although the records behind it can be considerably more detailed.

What Is the Difference Between ACES and PIES?

ACES communicates what a part fits, while PIES communicates what the part is. The Product Information Exchange Standard can carry descriptions, attributes, pricing, warranties, packaging, interchange information and digital assets. Together, the two standards connect an aftermarket product's identity and commercial content with its vehicle applications.

In practice, fitment data ecommerce workflows cross several systems. A manufacturer may publish both application and product data. A distributor may receive both, normalize the records in its PIM and use them in search results and product pages. The standards meet inside the catalog, where a complete description is of little use if it accompanies the wrong vehicle application.

Dimension	ACES	PIES
Primary purpose	Communicates product fitment and application data	Communicates product information
Business question	What does this part fit?	What is this part?
Typical content	Vehicle and equipment attributes, applications, qualifiers, classifications and brands	Descriptions, specifications, pricing, warranties, packaging, interchange data and digital assets
Current version	5.0	8.0
Previous version	4.2	7.2

Fig. ACES and PIES at a glance.

💡 For a fuller introduction to how ACES and PIES work, see our standards explainer.

What Is Actually Changing in ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0?

The ACES PIES update expands the information that can be attached to fitment, product, packaging and digital-asset records. Auto Care publicly identifies three additions in ACES 5.0 and four in PIES 8.0. The release also updates five supporting reference-database schemas, so the review cannot stop at the two XML formats.

In ACES 5.0, non-diagram assets can be associated with a particular vehicle and part number in the App Segment. The standard also supports multiple descriptions for one digital asset and multiple languages for the MfrLabel field, extending the handling of application-level media and localized labels.

PIES 8.0 adds Extended Producer Responsibility information and multiple packages for one item pack level to the Package Segment. In the Digital Asset Segments, file hashing helps verify file integrity, while record sequencing records the intended order of assets.

Existing area to review	New capability	Operational question
ACES App Segment asset mappings	Vehicle- and part-number-specific non-diagram assets	Can producing and receiving systems preserve the new associations?
ACES DigitalAsset Segment	Multiple descriptions for one asset	Can the PIM and downstream channels store and display the descriptions correctly?
ACES `MfrLabel` field	Multiple languages	How will locales, translations and fallback labels be governed?
PIES Package Segment	EPR packaging information	Which products and markets require the additional packaging data?
PIES package structure	Multiple packages at one item pack level	Do existing models assume only one package configuration?
PIES Digital Asset Segments	File hashing and record sequencing	Can asset pipelines validate files and retain the intended display order?

Fig. What changes in ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0.

The official release announcement also names VCdb 2.0, Qdb 2.0, PCdb 2.0, PAdb 5.0 and Brand Table 2.0 among the updated schemas. Internal mappings tied to these reference databases belong in the migration review.

Before you change production feeds, use Auto Care's XSD schemas, release notes and technical documentation for the complete field-level change list.

When Does ACES 5.0 Take Effect?

Auto Care announced the release of ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0 on April 2, 2026, and now lists them as the current versions. Its public guidance does not specify one universal cutoff for older files. Instead, the association continues to support ACES 4.2 and PIES 7.2 as the previous versions.

That policy does not establish when an individual distributor, retailer or data service will alter its intake requirements. Partners may adopt the new formats at different times.

Document the versions each recipient accepts, changeover dates, validation requirements and any period requiring two output formats. April 2 is the public release date, not a universal compliance deadline.

One release date, many acceptance dates.

Who Is Affected by the ACES PIES Update?

The update affects organizations on both sides of the data exchange. Manufacturers and brands create product and application records; distributors, retailers and ecommerce businesses receive and publish them. Catalog, PIM and technology teams maintain the mappings and integrations in between. Each group owns a different hand-off: records out, records in, and the mappings between.

How ACES and PIES records move between trading partners.

Role	Immediate responsibility	Risk to examine
Manufacturer or brand	Update source data and outgoing ACES and PIES feeds	Incomplete records or feeds rejected by a recipient
Distributor or retailer	Confirm ingestion, normalization and catalog support	Missing or outdated product listings
Catalog or PIM owner	Map new capabilities and updated schema dependencies	Manual corrections and inconsistent records
Ecommerce team	Configure merchandising, display and filters for the new packaging, label and asset data, then test them	Customer-facing content or fitment gaps
IT or architecture team	Update parsers, APIs, validation and partner integrations	Processing errors and delayed data releases

Fig. Responsibilities across the ACES PIES migration.

If records don't pass cleanly between systems, products can reach the storefront with incomplete content, stale applications or missing media. Each of those gaps has a cost an aftermarket business already measures: feeds rejected by a recipient, wrong-fit returns and corrections made by hand.

Commerce cannot correct weak source data, but it must preserve fitment as records move into search, account-specific catalogs and product pages.

What Do Suppliers Need to Do for ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0?

Approach ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0 as one controlled data and integration project. The work begins with ownership, version discovery and partner requirements, followed by mapping, testing and a phased release. Starting with field changes before documenting the full exchange process can leave important receiving systems outside the review.

Inventory current versions. Record every system that creates, processes, receives or displays ACES and PIES data, including third-party services and custom scripts.
Assign owners. Identify who controls source data, mappings, exports, imports, validation and customer-facing catalog behavior.
Obtain the official documentation. Download the XSD schemas, technical documents, coded values and release notes from Auto Care. Use them to establish the complete change list.
Run a gap analysis. Compare the new structures with current mappings, including ACES assets and labels, PIES packaging and media and the updated supporting schemas.
Confirm partner requirements. Record accepted versions, planned changeover dates and error-reporting processes. Decide whether the transition requires parallel output.
Update affected components. Amend PIM fields, mappings, parsers, exports, imports, APIs and storefront presentation where required. Document each change.
Validate and regression-test. Test representative files against the official schemas and inspect the downstream records. The AutoCareVIP Catalog Assessment Reporting Tool accepts ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0 XML and identifies discrepancies.
Release in phases. Start with a limited catalog range or partner. Check validation messages, rejected records, missing applications and storefront presentation before expanding.

ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0 readiness checklist.

Virto Commerce is a B2B commerce platform built for decomposability: one capability can be replaced or upgraded while the rest keeps trading. It connects with existing ERP and PIM systems through APIs. Parsing and validating ACES and PIES files stay upstream, in a PIM, a specialist fitment source or a service built for the job. Virto Commerce consumes the records those systems publish, holds the application records and attributes in its catalog, and indexes them so buyers can search by vehicle. Dual-version output during a changeover belongs to the system that produces the files, not the commerce layer. This separation lets a team update the affected data or integration services without rebuilding the entire commerce estate. The Virto × Reveation Labs Aftermarket Fitment Accelerator offers a fitment-ready starting point for a customer-specific implementation, not a finished storefront.

💡 Also: see how aftermarket teams modernize ahead of the migration.

See how aftermarket teams are getting ready for ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0

Request Demo

Prepare for This Version and the Next

A sound migration leaves more behind than files that pass the latest validation. It produces documented mappings, named data owners, repeatable tests and a clear process for coordinating with trading partners. Those disciplines give an aftermarket business a better chance of absorbing later standards releases without another improvised catalog repair project.

ACES 5.0 and PIES 8.0 provide the immediate reason to begin. The longer-term objective is to change product data, fitment, integrations and commerce one at a time instead of together. When the next version ships, documented mappings and known partner acceptance dates can turn the migration into scoped work instead of another catalog repair project.