{"id":1838,"date":"2025-12-05T00:29:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T20:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/trump-invites-cute-japanese-kei-trucks-to-come-to-america\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T00:29:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T20:29:44","slug":"trump-invites-cute-japanese-kei-trucks-to-come-to-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/trump-invites-cute-japanese-kei-trucks-to-come-to-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump invites \u2018cute\u2019 Japanese kei trucks to come to America"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tThis picture taken on August 31, 2017 shows Honda Motor’s new N-BOX mini-vehicles at its headquaters in Tokyo.\t<\/figcaption><\/p><\/figure>\n

Tiny kei trucks from Japan have a new fan: President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n

Trump expressed admiration for the pint-sized autos during a briefing with reporters to announce his plan to gut fuel economy standards<\/a>. \u201cThey\u2019re very small.\u00a0They\u2019re really cute,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd I said, how would that do in this country?\u00a0And everyone seems to think, good, but you\u2019re not allowed to build them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kei vehicles, which are built to satisfy Japan\u2019s light vehicle regulations, are enjoying surging popularity in the automarket \u2014 including here in the US. Sales of kei trucks tripled in the last five years, with around 7,500 total imported just last year, according to data from Japan Used Motor Vehicle cited by CNN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019re very small.\u00a0They\u2019re really cute.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Comparing them to the Volkswagen Beetle, Trump said he was authorizing the US Department of Transportation \u201cto immediately approve the production of those cars.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave me the directive to clear the regulations on this, which we have,\u201d US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at the briefing.\u00a0\u201cAnd so if Toyota or any other company wants to make smaller, more affordable cars, fuel\u00a0efficient, we have cleared the deck so they can make them in America and sell them in\u00a0America.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for USDOT did not immediately respond to questions about what specific authorization Trump gave Duffy. <\/p>\n

Indeed, the regulation around the legality of kei vehicles in the US is spotty. Federal rules allow for the import of mini trucks so long as they are 25 years or older, while state laws surrounding their on-road legality and registration are less clear. The vehicles would also need to comply with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, which dictates everything from steering wheel placement to vehicle weight. <\/p>\n

That said, many states have rules allowing low-speed vehicles like golf carts, so its conceivable that kei trucks could slip through under those provisions. <\/p>\n

Whether they would sell, though, is another question. Kei vehicles, short for \u201ckeitora,\u201d meaning \u201clight truck,\u201d have strict guidelines around engine, size, and power limits. And while they certainly have a following in the US, they are probably too small for the majority of American buyers. <\/p>\n

That said, they have a small but growing fan base in the US, specifically because they represent an antidote to the giant SUVs and trucks that dominate our roads today<\/a>. On Instagram<\/a> and other social platforms, enthusiasts sell kei merch and post memes to tens of thousands of followers. <\/p>\n

Of course, the purpose of the briefing was to announce the rollback of strict fuel efficiency rules put in place by the Biden administration. Trump said the goal was to make cars more affordable, but most experts predict that any savings from lower-priced vehicles will be offset by higher fuel costs over time. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This picture taken on August 31, 2017 shows Honda Motor’s new N-BOX mini-vehicles at its headquaters in Tokyo. Tiny kei […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}