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It’s no secret that kei cars are booming in popularity in the United States, and not just with traditional enthusiasts. The utility of kei trucks is encouraging folks who just want a practical work vehicle to navigate the vagaries of the 25-year rule and individual state regulations to get one of these Japanese imports. Before, only those obsessed with performance royalty like the Nissan Skyline GT-R did that.
NHK World, a Japanese public broadcasting service, recently sent a correspondent to Pennsylvania to talk with American kei truck fans. (The video is here. Sadly, it can’t be embedded.) At Lancaster Mini Truck, a dealership stocked with cab-forward kei trucks (as well as a cartoonish Nissan S-Cargo), they explained why they love these tiny vehicles, an estimated 30,000 of which have been imported to the U.S. over the past five years, according to the report.
NHK World via YouTube
“I got my first mini truck five years ago,” Jake Simpson, owner of the dealership, said. “I felt like a celebrity driving it. I couldn’t go to a gas station without someone asking me about it or trying to figure out how they could get their own.” With so much apparent interest in kei trucks, Simpson decided to turn his hobby into a business. He now imports about 15 to 20 trucks a month.
Simpson calls kei trucks a “no-brainer.” Japanese regulations place limits on the overall size, engine displacement, and power output of all kei vehicles (in exchange for lower tax and insurance rates), which is why they’re so small. But as Simpson points out, the trucks can be equipped with four-wheel drive, get around 40 mpg, and he can sell them profitably for around $6,000 to $8,000. He then pulls out a tape measure and compares the bed length of a kei truck with that of a late-model Ram 3500 crew cab. They’re the same, and American pickups don’t have fold-down bed sides that allow unloading from waist height.
NHK World via YouTube
As far as the federal government is concerned, any car or truck not originally homologated for the U.S. can be imported if it’s at least 25 years old. But some states don’t allow kei cars and trucks to be registered for public-road use. One of those states is New York, but Joey Iorio co-founded Empire State Kei Advocates to change that. Iorio said that he’s “probably called every single state Senator” to lobby for legislative changes that will allow kei owners to register their vehicles.
As noted in the report, grassroots efforts like this have been successful. Texas legalized kei cars last year after lobbying from enthusiasts, for example. And while they’re still not legal in every state, it’s nice to see so much love for tiny trucks in a country whose auto industry is increasingly defined by the exact opposite.
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Stephen has always been passionate about cars, and managed to turn that passion into a career as a freelance automotive journalist. When he’s not handling weekend coverage for The Drive, you can find him looking for a new book to read.
