Trump wanted little Kei trucks for America, Toyota makes it happen
After all, who could forget President Trump—usually one to take a maximalist approach to any problem— announcing last year that he wanted the Department of Transportation to make Japan’s diminutive “Kei” cars legal here in the US.
Key points
- Japan’s Kei cars are what happens if the government instead restricts the size, engine capacity, and power output.
- In the US, the preponderance of humongous SUVs is a consequence largely of government policies, specifically corporate average fuel economy standards that made it less profitable to sell smaller, efficient cars.
- The idea that Americans should be offered a greater choice of smaller cars has support from strange bedfellows indeed.
But this week, there has been movement on the topic, with Toyota announcing that it will bring back the Scion brand with the KEI-01.
Ars’ attempts to get DoT to tell us more about the potential influx of little vehicles have mostly fallen on deaf ears.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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