Been to Japan lately and can share some photos. There are even Kei Fire Trucks, for the many small roads with wooden houses and shrines etc.
And then there are hundreds of different kei truck and van types for all purposes, even concrete mixers.
Also, private houses in cities are often small and space-saving and so are the cars. A sensible use of public space – and cars only park on private property or rented parking spaces.
WHAT IS THE WHITE HONDA?
I’ve wanted an upgrade to my element but this looks adorbs and 4 door.
Looks like an N-Box. The rear doors are sliding.
TYVM
This is just freaking adorable!
I guess the size has something to do with the size of Japanese roads and back alley space?
Yes in some neighborhoods and villages the roads are so narrow that they can practically only be driven on by Kei cars.
Japan as an Island has limited space available for natural reasons, plus large parts of the country are mountain area. So the old cities have been built in plains and reached high density. Building is strictly regulated.
And that has also grown into the culture. The Japanese sense for efficiency is legendary and so you simply don’t waste space. And in general, you don’t show off with oversized cars. Understatement is part of the general habitus. Shintoism and Buddhism have deep roots and that certainly plays a role too.
Neither the fire truck nor the concrete truck are Kei class vehicles.
They are small diesel trucks, yes, but Kei literally means ‘light’ and have strict weight limits on both the weight of the vehicle and how much load they can carry.
I will promise you that those two are not even close to the size of traditional versions you’ll see in Germany.
Well, those are also not vehicles that the average citizen buys. They’re specialized for their purpose, the fire truck needs to transport a decent amount of water and 4-5 people, and concrete is heavy stuff. But in a certain way they follow the same design philosophy.
That much is certainly true. It’s such a shame that small trucks are not available to buy new in the US.
Ok that black van model goes way harder than it has any right to
These are rad. Weird they’re not more popular internationally.
The fire truck’s not a kei-- keis have yellow plates
Mazda B series ready for a come back!
How’s my /keitruck subreddit doing? I got banned from reddit as a different username at the IP level so I have no clue. I was thinking about starting it again here on our own instance but it’s been a struggle with de-googlelizing my life at the moment. But maybe someone else has one already? Time to leave that rotten place behind.
Besides taking way less space on the road or while parking, you’ll only have to lift your stuff half the way up to the RAM or something like it. I personally like not breaking my back.
Okay I want a broke down one of these, an crate electric motor, and a lifepo4 battery pack
I had a 2016 GMC Sierra. Cost $100 a week to take my son to daycare. Sold it and got a Sienna Hybrid and a classic truck for hauling shit. I hate all the technology in cars these days. My van tracks me and in the app it says “this feature can be disabled but the tracking will not stop” or to that affect. Garbage.
After you traded your Sierra for a Sienna, did you take a Siesta?
I too am fed up with all the data rape. Fuck off car companies, greedy assholes.
It’s not just FUD either, this shit is actively happening NOW: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html
five-speed manual transmission
I like having an automatic transmission. The vehicle in the article isn’t gonna do it for me.
You know they come in automatic, too? 4-speed, usually.
So you don’t like actually driving.
deleted by creator
You’re goddamn right I don’t, but I don’t have a choice due to where I live. A car is a tool to me, in the same way that a vacuum cleaner or a push lawnmower is a tool. The most important thing a car should do for me is reliably get me from point a to point b in relative comfort. I could give a fuck about the “true driving experience” of a manual transmission.
As much as overpaying sucks, that thing is just asking to get obliterated on an American road.
Are American roads like one of those bumper car thingies of the amusement parks?
A great number of people use highways the way you would drive a race track.
Or just use them in cities or rural areas. Not everyone goes onto the freeway everyday.
Reminder that due to the chicken tax, these vehicles have to be 25 years old before they can be imported.
The big problem is, these vehicles were built to 30 year old safety standards - no vehicle from the 1990’s (except maybe a SAAB, and even then they’re not strong enough anymore and will fail a small offset frontal) can compete with a modern car in safety requirements.
There is also the fact that these vehicles have been around for 25 years, and have that amount of age and wear on their platform - they won’t be as strong as they originally were off the production line.
Thank god someone said it. This comment makes the most sense of any of the comments I’ve read so far.
I call bs, a motorcycle provides way less protection. And which states are they illegal in? Lobbying and another money grab from corporations in our “free market” society. I would love one of these BTW.
Motorcycles have different licensing requirements, and come with caveat emptor that they are inherently unsafe in a motor vehicle accident.
That’s not to say bikes don’t have any safety at all… there is R&D that goes into making them safe in a collision… as safe as they can be.
That’s not to say bikes don’t have any safety at all… there is R&D that goes into making them safe in a collision… as safe as they can be.
Yup. I survived a high-side collision after being sideswiped by an SUV. Thanks to modern safety gear, I only had minor injuries with little long-term beyond an ankle to lets me sense slight changes in atmospheric pressure.
Why can’t we just accept that the KEI is less safe then?
Anyone who buys a Kei car already knows this just by looking at it.
I’m always shocked by this. In a world with seatbelt laws, crumple zones, backup cameras, pinch protection, etc we allow people to ride motorcycles that consistently get injured or killed. How they haven’t gotten banned or stupidly restricted is beyond me. Even with a motorcycle lane, getting in a wreck at 75mph would be seriously bad.
In my state, I’m pretty sure you can ride a motorcycle legally with a helmet and a tshirt on, but get pulled over and fined for not wearing a seatbelt, lol.
The seat belt is to prevent you from being thrown through the glass and body/frame of the vehicle. Because that’s generally what kills unseatbelted people in a wreck. A motorcyclist will be thrown from their vehicle if hit but is much less likely to hit that vehicle at 70mph. That’s why you dress for the slide so to speak. It’s about how you land as much as anything. And when you’re inside a vehicle and being tossed around you are basically a reverse pinata.
And if you get it from Japan it’s right hand drive so visibility of the incoming lane is crap as well…
Also, for Kei trucks specifically, cab over engine vehicles are unsafe in frontal collisions no matter what, even modern ones, that’s why there’s no regular passenger vehicle built like that anymore and it’s only heavier vehicles (like moving trucks) that have this setup, they don’t fall under the same safety regulations.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24499113/
Conclusions: Although we are generally concerned that drivers of small vehicles suffer more severe injuries, our results suggest that, for real-world accidents, K-cars provide similar safety for drivers involved in frontal collisions as standard vehicles in low delta V impact conditions.
Not all Kei cars are Kei trucks with cab over wheels.
“Low delta V impact”. I’m sure a car from the 50s deals with front collisions at 30kph fairly well, but go watch a crash test at highway speeds and tell me you would feel safe.
Freaking lol
Even if you could get a new one, I don’t think they’d meet US safety standards. Not even close.
Mind you, the US has to have stringent safety standards because we have gigantic vehicles in the first place.
Kei vehicles are exempt from most Japanese safety standards, because they’re meant for city driving with max speeds of 40-60 kph and everyone driving them knows and acknowledges that you’re just fucked if you get into an accident at speeds higher than that (and not doing great even at 40kph). It’s an explicit trade of safety for lower cost
no vehicle from the 1990’s (except maybe a SAAB, and even then they’re not strong enough anymore and will fail a small offset frontal) can compete with a modern car in safety requirements.
Americans keep building bigger trucks and raising speed limits, then bemoaning how small vehicles aren’t safe enough to survive an 80mph impact with a 10,000 pound vehicle.
You think these Keis are dangerous? Try riding a bike.
I’d love to ride a train to work. Play on my steam deck on the way home and not have to worry about getting stuck in traffic for hours. Visiting Washington DC and riding the metro everywhere ruined me, now I look at a five lane at road and say “This is bullshit!”.
Here’s where they’re legal, and exactly how legal they are in the US
Many of the “legal” states aren’t all that legal, really.
What is the too small for road safety thing? That’s pure bullshit, right? Smart cars are legal, how can these not be?
Give us cheap EVs and small trucks god damnit!!!
Sounds like some lack basic safety equipment like seat-belts.
They don’t pass US federal crash tests, probably because of the lack of crumple zone, so they can’t be imported until they’re 25 years old. Which doesn’t make them any safer, but I guess rules are rules:
Because the trucks don’t meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, they’re legal to import only 25 years after having been manufactured. Then, it’s up to each state to decide whether to allow them on public roads.
I have one. No crumple zone. No airbags. Slow acceleration. Can’t reach highway speeds. No headrest.
But it’s my favorite car ever. I just treat it like I’m riding a motorcycle. I’m dead in an accident, so I try to be hyper-aware.
It might be more about what vehicles share the road. SUVs and pickups tend to cause the majority of fatalities in crashes because their bumper height basically being non compatible with cars and vans and their larger blindspots… That design might not play particularly well with the Keis in crash situations.
But that being said SUVs and raised pickups are menaces to road safety across the board and we should be looking at phasing them out.
I guess it’s just the lack of any crumple zone, similar to the VW van your legs are essentially the crumple zone.
Yeah, I’d imagine it’s fine down gridlocked Tokyo streets where you might be doing 20mph.
Probably not so good in a 70mph highway collision though.
IIRC, these things exist to exploit a legal loophole around vehicle registration in Japan as well. Safety is not the highest concern lol
I’m sorry, why the fuck aren’t these street legal in more than half of the states? The article says something about safety, but these are street legal all over Europe where we have stronger safety regulations.
Also there’s something I can’t put my finger on about the journalist choosing a hero image of the van losing its cargo.
European road safety regulations are significantly weaker than those in the US and Canada.
You’ve never been to Europe, lol.
I’ve lived in several European countries and also worked in compliance departments for auto manufacturers. You have zero clue what you’re talking about.
Yet you back up your claim with nothingness. Not quite sure how living in a country makes you an expert on regulations. Why didn’t you add substance? The compliance department in the companies I worked for wouldn’t be experts btw.
Pretty sure that’s not the case, had a little Google and it seems like I’m right, but I’m open to being corrected if I’m wrong or misunderstanding what you mean. Here’s evidence to support my claim:
https://etrr.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/s12544-014-0131-7
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001457518300034
Traditionally they’ve been banned because they don’t do well in crash testing, as they don’t have crumple zones or airbags. Here’s some testing from 2010 by the insurance industry arguing that they shouldn’t be on highways.
Here in the states we have
legal corruptionlobbyists which the auto manufacturers pay to keep cheap vehicles from being used. And then the lawmakers claim safety concerns as the reason.They don’t meet the us safety standards. It could mean a lot of things like lacking 5mph bumpers, air bags, abs, etc.
Doesn’t mean they aren’t safe.
Doesn’t mean they aren’t safe.
At just 31MPH a Kei truck gets absolutely clobbered in front offset and side impact safety tests, even against small vehicles like Smart Cars and the old (small) Ford Rangers. Like don’t bother calling an ambulance just the morgue kind of clobbered.
Kei trucks are neat vehicles and I’d like to have one but scientific testing shows that they are not safe.
Just because a vehicle doesn’t meet us safety standards doesn’t mean they aren’t safe. It also doesn’t mean they are safe.
Also, aren’t these all 25 years old or older? Safety expectations should be lower.
yet people are killed / injured on european road at much smaller rate than in the US. the best US state is less safe than even the worst canadian province (and canada isnt even good). the US treats its roads like a car crash derby so it needs “higher standards”, but that approach is provably terrible. not only vehicules are huge and wasteful, but the roads remain horribly unsafe as well.
Protectionism.
Speed restrictions.
Kei trucks were designed for use in dense Japanese cities, which is why they also work in European cities. They are nimble but have a low top speed. You’re not going 70 mph around a street corner for instance.
It would work in places like NYC for the same reasons, but remember that most of the USA is suburban or rural. You need vehicles that are capable of going fast if you’re going to get on a highway.
A possible workaround is to have a separate class for these, like mopeds or scooters, which are road legal but are not highway legal.
In Illinois, at least, your motorcycle has to be 150cc to ride on the interstate. A Chinese GY6 scooter might be able to do 50MPH with a tailwind. You’d get killed on the interstate on one of those, yet, fully legal to do it.
You’d get killed on the interstate on one of those,
You guys in Illinois are crazy though. I learned very quickly how much that 55 MPH limit is a guideline and not a hard limit.
A long, long time ago, I used to drive from Kenosha, WI, to Wilmette (and later Northfield), IL, for work, down I-94, in a 1986 Honda CRX. Up until about Tower Rd., I was doing 105MPH every day, and people were passing me like nothing.
deleted by creator
They might have been looking at the kph instead of mph. 65 mph (105 kph) with everyone passing sounds about right.
Depends on what part of Illinois you’re talking about, I’m from southern Illinois and we typically only go about 60/65 on highway and 75/80 on interstate. Chicagoans will honk and pass me while I am doing 80 through 2 lane construction zones, literally happened a couple months ago as I was driving to O’Hare for an overnight flight
That work around is what most states that explicitly legalized kei trucks have done, they can’t enter roads over 55mph. It’s a reasonable concession, you probably don’t want to take one over 50mph anyway.
Most places in the US are connected by 55 mph roads. I’d be hard-pressed to get anywhere but the city center in most places I’ve lived if I couldn’t use those roads.
Farm equipment and bikes use those roads all the time, and they go even slower, so I don’t think being able to keep up with traffic is a valid concern.
I live in one of the most rural states in the country, where loads to haul are generally large and the posted speed limit on the highway is usually 75 mph, and the de facto highway speed is usually 5-10 mph above that. No truck that can barely push 70 is gonna keep up with that. On top of that, you’re dealing with ice and snow on the roads half the year, so you’ll need to be able to deal with that too.
Note that I said over 55, rural connection roads should still be traversable since most are 55. Basically limits them from entering the interstate highways.
Southern California is entirely navigable by surface streets, but also too, there are plenty of vehicles going only 55 in the slow lanes, which is the speed limit for trucks anyway (though few pay attention to it). I have a '72 camper that can barely do 50, and I take it on the freeway several times a year.
thats honestly a problem that can be solved with a small turbocharger and a slightly higher msrp, its not like they are ever getting close to the price of one of the huge ones.
They’re not really safe. They are generally front heavy, so there is a risk of rolling forward, no crumple zone safety stuff, more often than not the front suspension is under the seat and if that breaks it would shoot up into the cabin, and on top of everything they are pretty slow. They have more in common with an off road Polaris than a traditional truck, which is to be expected because they were mostly designed to be farm trucks. I’d much rather be in an older s10 than a kei truck in the event of a crash (and s10’s aren’t very safe). I think I lot of why they are so popular these days is because there aren’t really any light trucks anymore, and these are an alternative.
We should take a step back: why do we need all those safety standards in the first place? The reason is that we have such gigantic vehicles in the first place, and smaller ones simply cannot be safe on the same road. Level that all down and suddenly Kei cars are as safe as they need to be.
I wrapped a 2017 SUV around a telephone pole and didn’t get a scratch. It’s not all about other cars.
The problem is not even big trucks. It is medium speed collisions with barriers. Kei trucks typically don’t have air bags or a crumple zone. They are designed for low speed driving on open roads.
Not really. I compared it to an older Chevy s10 for a reason. Those were relatively small trucks that, while not always the most reliable, are still a pretty decent option for most people. Kei trucks are a smidge smaller, but are better on gas and frankly less safe. I don’t think this is a “get rid of bigger vehicles and this goes away” but of a “Kei trucks aren’t really any safer than an off-road golf cart and current regulations allows them on the road”. We need the safety regulations so less people die on Auto accidents, and kei trucks don’t really have to comply with even the basic ones.
I’d still own one if they were just banned on highways. The risk is probably pretty low on low speed city streets, where these would be most useful.
I actually considered it when I last looked for a new vehicle but besides being too expensive for what they are ($10k for a 90s cheap truck) they made a lot of compromises on them. For instance, on most the struts and springs are right under the seats, so if that breaks it would come right up into your legs. If the truck is rusty and going over bumps, that is a non zero possibility.
Different crash standards in US and Europe. Most companies don’t even bother getting cars tested (designed?) in both because the market demands are so different.
Removed by mod
For the hero image, that could possibly just be an attempt at a “fun” way of showing that they can carry a lot by mean of hyperbole.
“Look at that tiny truck, it’s bursting with boxes!”
Probably because it’s not safe to drive them around giant pickups who can’t see over their hoods
How’s that different from driving a car roughly the same size?
Just noting as a reference these trucks are 11ft long, a Miata is roughly 20% longer at 13ft.
Doing comparisons like these don’t make sense when motorcycles and trikes exist.
I didn’t really intend for it to be a comparison or supporting the narrative these trucks are ‘too small for America’, I just find many people hear small truck and imagine “like a ford ranger but a little less”, as their starting reference point. Gotta go smaller, scale is tough.
My bad. It just seems like the low hanging fruit everyone plays off of.
We actually used to get vehicles close to this size. The Suzuki samurai (really a jimny) was sold here for a number of years. Geo sold a fair number of almost kei cars that Suzuki made.
I’m a fan of limiting them from interstate highways, but keeping them registrable. It’s just dumb they cite “safety” even though the law explicitly calls out they aren’t required to be safe. I just want a nice 25-45 mph city truck to lug dirty junk around.
But if anyone is curious, Douglas deBoard imported so many European cars in the 80’s that cut into the profits of Mercedes USA enough that they pushed the law through. Buying them in Europe and importing them was actually cheaper (in some aspects) than buying a US market one. And the imported cars were better equipped!
It wasn’t even about protecting American manufacturers or trucks. Mercedes has just always been a huge dick.
No lie. Gray market Mercedes were awesome. Way more powerful and you could get base models with zero cruft - manual transmissions and wind up windows.
Just for reference a Fiat 500 is roughly 9.75 feet long.
Maybe in the 70s, a modern 500 is listed at 11.6 ft
It looks like I got my info mixed up, thank you for the correction.
But then it’s these giant pickups which are unfit and should not be road legal.
Ya. Everything’s expensive, so people buy the cheapest thing [with four wheels]. I don’t want folks on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum to think these are a safe option.
If(?) a ‘90s Honda sedan is safer but the Kei is new and looks cute, for the same price many will choose the less safe option.
Eight Californians die on our roads every day here and I can’t wait for some solutions. I really do empathize with everyone you readers care about (no oil companies, no just-for-funsies-truck manufacturers) - I hate the thought of crumpled and crushed human bodies.
What makes you think it’s not safe?
Just added something about that - articles & crash tests over the years. Was interested in little vehicles myself. Intrigued seeing them on college campuses.
Thin steel frame, no air bags, no crumple zones.
Check out the crash tests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roLcNwRi1Sk&t=40s
deleted by creator
Ouch
Wow, the Kei truck does not fare well at all in that offset test!
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=roLcNwRi1Sk&t=40s
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
And yet Smart cars are legal.
Smart cars had to pass US crash test standards and have the appropriate safety equipment. The kei trucks that you can currently import and use are 25+ years old and wouldn’t have even passed US standards back then. Your legs are the crumple zone in these things.
I assume that new ones would have a chance, but it’d be expensive for a manufacturer to modify and certify for the US market. Small cars haven’t sold well here, and the profit margins are slim.
Maybe with the recent size and price increases in autos here, well see some movement. I’d love a modern Honda kei to go with my element.
I get all that, but the individual I replied to only related small size to safety. I was merely pointing out that size isn’t a factor.
I appreciate your post, and agree completely! A Kei truck would satisfy all my requirements for a utility vehicle.
The crumple zone thing is a bit grey as the USA sells and allows trucks like the Isuzu NPR/Chevy Cab Over.
I’m sorry, their problem is that the massive trucks are somehow in danger because they weren’t designed to handle being hit by a vehicle less than half its size?
What a ridiculous statement.
They took a street legal Smart ForTwo…
Then crashed it into a little electric truck and a golf cart…
And they want stuff to be as safe as the Smart car.
That’s not what they are saying at all. They’re saying small vehicles aren’t even safe in crashes with other small vehicles, let alone with bigger vehicles.
Europe and Japan all have freight trucks driving around, so I don’t buy that. The fact that many states won’t allow these is American truck manufacturing protectionism, nothing more. It’s the same reason you can only get a 3/4 or 1 ton truck from Ford, Chevy, or Ram (chicken tax).
It’s all about the chicken tax.
The front view from a freight truck is better than that of a f150.
Sure, but as I responded to someone else, show me a viable option that’s readily available in the states for a contractor or someone delivering heavy stuff that has the power and 4x4 to do the thing at a reasonable price. I’m all for getting some of these European/Japanese solutions over here, but they simply aren’t available or affordable, and so we’re stuck with oversized pickups and under powered vans until something changes.
Cab over engine freight trucks with excellent visibility, not jacked up chevys where your view of the ground starts 20 feet in front of you
And that’s precisely because the option isn’t readily available here. We can argue merits of different countries versus the US, but at the end of the day it is what it is unless something changes at the legislative level.
When say a contractor goes to purchase a work vehicle, the option is either a van, which have pathetic motors and hauling capabilities, or a pickup from one of the big 3 that can be outfitted with a utility body. Sometimes you can score one of those Isuzu cabovers, but they’re typically outfitted with a full sized box on the chassis, and they’re far and few between, and often more expensive. Vans are also stupid expensive, especially 4x4 models, because of the van life crowd. The options really are much more limited than other parts of the world, and I truly believe it’s to keep prices high and the money vacuum humming. Plus, you can find an older utility body truck for a fraction of the cost of a used van (I just did this 6 months ago; granted I’m in California, so my experience may not be the norm).
I ended up buying a Ram 2500 when looking for a work truck. I would’ve loved a 25/35 class van, but I need 4x4 (mountains, snow), and because of the premium those models fetch due to demand from the van life people, that wasn’t an option.
And I dunno about other people, but I know what’s in front of my truck at all times. It really isn’t that hard to mind your surroundings.
This is how we got in this mess, an arms race of trying to feel safe around larger and larger hunks of metal on the road. Americans just have to endanger everyone else for their own peace of mind.
Where exactly are these legal in Europe? I’ve never seen one, we have small-ish trucks (that get bigger every iteration) but not this tiny, that I know of. Pretty sure they’re not legal in my country at least.
They’re definitely legal, they’re just not sold. I’ve seen them, but they’re generally sold by importer companies that sell JDM vehicles. A business in my area has a fleet of kei pickups
in Europe?
but not this tiny,You don’t know the Ape? It’s really everywhere in Europe.
You don’t know the Ape? It’s really everywhere in Europe.
I haven’t seen those in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany except maybe once in 5 years. Further, it’s seems not comparable. In Netherlands it likely wouldn’t be considered a car. It likely would fall under the max 45 kmh regulations.
No I didn’t, they might be everywhere but they aren’t very common (maybe in Italy…). I’ve seen the other small plagio truck (because that Ape is not a truck, barely a bit more than a scooter), but only a handful and it’s been like ten years since the last I saw, and they aren’t as small as these kei trucks (these are as long as a fiat 500).
Because there’s a market for functional, minimalist vehicles that do a job and don’t require 8 or more years of payments. Trucks have become status symbols more often than not.
How about an e-GMP version?
Uh oh, better ban them!
Way ahead of ya!
Map: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/kei-truck-legal-states
No recorded law: 28
Legal: 19
Illegal: 2
https://keitruckconnect.com/us-states-you-can-drive-kei-trucks/
State-Specific Legality of Kei Trucks: The permissibility of these compact, fuel-efficient vehicles varies across the U.S., largely due to differing safety and environmental standards.
Are Kei Trucks Legal in California? In the Golden State, Kei trucks can be driven on local roads, but not on freeways. This is due to the fact that many of these vehicles are not equipped with EPA-compliant engines for highway use. However, there are no restrictions on their use for off-road activities. Their off-road capabilities make them a popular choice for those in need of a compact work or recreational vehicle.
Are Kei Trucks Legal in Texas? In the Lone Star State, the situation is a bit different. Kei trucks are not street-legal due to the state’s stringent safety standards for passenger vehicles. These trucks often lack standard safety features such as airbags and seatbelts, which can make them less safe in an accident. However, there are exceptions to this rule. If the mini truck is used for agricultural purposes or has been modified to meet the state’s safety standards, it may be allowed on public roads. In these cases, the necessary permits and inspections are required. Laws Governing Kei Trucks in other States. The permissibility of Kei trucks varies greatly across the U.S. For instance, in Alabama, you can use mini trucks on any public roads except interstate highways. The speed limit for these vehicles is 25 mph.
Florida allows registered mini trucks to operate only on streets with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less. In Louisiana, you can use mini trucks freely with a speed limit under 55 mph. North Carolina allows mini trucks to be licensed and used on all NC roads.
In Washington, mini trucks are street legal. Wyoming permits mini trucks on any roads except for interstate highways. It’s important to note that none of the 50 states allow mini trucks on interstate highways. This is due to safety reasons and the fact that most Kei trucks can only reach a maximum speed of 65 mph, which is lower than the speed limit on interstates.
I think someone who tried to do that might just disappear in this day and age. Don’t ask gen-z, we won’t know.
My state did, otherwise I’d be driving one right now. A friend with a Subaru Sambar is being told hers should not have been allowed to be registered and is trying to fight it.
woulda been nice to know which state
for anyone else:
Map: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/kei-truck-legal-states
No recorded law: 28
Legal: 19
Illegal: 2
https://keitruckconnect.com/us-states-you-can-drive-kei-trucks/
State-Specific Legality of Kei Trucks: The permissibility of these compact, fuel-efficient vehicles varies across the U.S., largely due to differing safety and environmental standards.
Are Kei Trucks Legal in California? In the Golden State, Kei trucks can be driven on local roads, but not on freeways. This is due to the fact that many of these vehicles are not equipped with EPA-compliant engines for highway use. However, there are no restrictions on their use for off-road activities. Their off-road capabilities make them a popular choice for those in need of a compact work or recreational vehicle.
Are Kei Trucks Legal in Texas? In the Lone Star State, the situation is a bit different. Kei trucks are not street-legal due to the state’s stringent safety standards for passenger vehicles. These trucks often lack standard safety features such as airbags and seatbelts, which can make them less safe in an accident. However, there are exceptions to this rule. If the mini truck is used for agricultural purposes or has been modified to meet the state’s safety standards, it may be allowed on public roads. In these cases, the necessary permits and inspections are required. Laws Governing Kei Trucks in other States. The permissibility of Kei trucks varies greatly across the U.S. For instance, in Alabama, you can use mini trucks on any public roads except interstate highways. The speed limit for these vehicles is 25 mph.
Florida allows registered mini trucks to operate only on streets with a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less. In Louisiana, you can use mini trucks freely with a speed limit under 55 mph. North Carolina allows mini trucks to be licensed and used on all NC roads.
In Washington, mini trucks are street legal. Wyoming permits mini trucks on any roads except for interstate highways. It’s important to note that none of the 50 states allow mini trucks on interstate highways. This is due to safety reasons and the fact that most Kei trucks can only reach a maximum speed of 65 mph, which is lower than the speed limit on interstates.
I just want a Kei car in Germany
