President Donald Trump has a plan to make Kei cars great again. Trump, in a briefing with reporters announcing the rollback of fuel economy standards, expressed his admiration for the bite-sized vehicles he saw during a recent trip to Japan, calling them "really cute"—and he wants them built and sold in America.
Trump compared the cars to "how the Beetle used to be," but added "you're not allowed to build them, and I've authorized the Secretary [of Transportation] to immediately approve the production of those cars." Kei cars are a type of Japanese vehicle with strict engine, size, and power limits that are, arguably, too small for the majority of American buyers. That said, they do have a following here.
"He gave me the directive to clear the regulations on this, to which we have," said Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, "So, if Toyota or any other company wants to make smaller, more affordable cars, fuel efficient [sic], we have cleared the deck so they can make them in America and sell them in America."
Which federal regulations Duffy plans to change in order to bring Kei car production to the United States remains unclear. The biggest hurdle to owning a new Kei car in the United States is the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Still, plenty of American companies already build vehicles that don't meet these regulations, like track-only models.
The bigger issue is registering vehicles with the states, which regulate their own registration standards. They require new cars to meet the FMVSS, a 1,400-page document that goes into excruciating detail on how automakers should build cars.
It's so detailed that it dictates how far a steering wheel and column can move toward the driver in the event of a front-end crash, so it doesn't impale them. It has strict safety requirements that these smaller vehicles don't meet, but that doesn't automatically ban their use on public roads.
While many states won't let you register a new car that doesn't meet the FMVSS, they do allow other types of vehicles on public roads with restrictions, like golf carts. However, the federal safety standards remain unchanged as of this writing to reflect Trump's latest dictum. The last update occurred in March.
A phone call to the transportation secretary's public affairs contact had a recorded message instructing Motor1 to email our questions about which regulations the department has changed, which we have.
We will update this story if we hear back.
