The first time I visited Japan, I couldn’t help noticing all of the things that it does better than the United States. I rode bullet trains that top out at 200 miles an hour and spotted vending machines that serve fresh fruits and vegetables. But the worst part was the car envy: Why are America’s city streets clogged with enormous SUVs and trucks when we could instead have the Suzuki Hustler?
An adorably rugged little box of a car, the Hustler looks something like a Hummer, but is closer in size to a Smart car. The U.S. has nothing like it, especially not for the cost. The Hustler has four-wheel drive, a hybrid engine, and a shocking amount of storage space for your gear—not bad for about $12,000.
The Hustler, and others like it, is a kei car: short for kei-jidosha, meaning “light vehicle.” Kei cars (pronounced kay) are a category of Japanese cars restricted to small dimensions and engines. They come in all shapes and configurations in Japan: tiny delivery vans, hatchbacks, pickup trucks, even sports cars with gull-wing doors. They’re an indelible part of Japan’s automotive culture, with a reputation for enchanting foreign visitors.
President Donald Trump is apparently the latest to succumb to their charm. In the Oval Office last week—flanked by auto-industry executives celebrating America’s new, weaker fuel-economy standards—Trump gushed about the little cars he saw on a recent trip to Asia. “They’re very small; they’re really cute,” Trump said. Honda and other Japanese companies “do a beautiful job” of making these micro-cars, he said, “but we’re not allowed to make them in this country.” Two days later, Trump doubled down. “I have just approved TINY CARS to be built in America,” he posted on Truth Social. “These cars of the very near future are inexpensive, safe, fuel efficient and, quite simply, AMAZING!!! START BUILDING THEM NOW!”
Trump is right: Truly small and affordable cars areall but gone from the American market. Especially over the past decade, automakers have shifted their offerings to larger and pricier crossovers and trucks. Even the Honda Civic, among the smallest cars that the automaker sells in the U.S., is nearly 10 inches longer than the 2005 model.
The Honda N-Box, Japan’s best-selling car, is more than four feet shorter than a Civic—and more than half the cost. The beauty of these tiny cars is that many are quite nice. A new Nissan kei car has advanced features, such as a display that aids parking by making the front of the car seem invisible, and Google apps built into the software system.
It isn’t hard to see why Trump wants to bring such models to the U.S. The president is under mounting pressure to address rising costs and persistentinflation; a new, well-equipped Nissan or Honda micro-car that sells for under $15,000 sounds on paper like a great solution to skyrocketing new-car prices. (The average new car in America has hit a record high of about $50,000.) And already, used kei cars are catching on in the U.S. in an unusual way. Because of a regulatory quirk, a foreign car that doesn’t meet U.S. safety or emissions standards can still be imported if it is at least 25 years old. Americans are giving a second life to Japan’s tiny pickups, vans, and sports cars, often for recreation but sometimes even as cheap, tough, around-town work vehicles.
Imagine a future where Trump’s edict has gone into effect: Americans gleefully downsize from their Ford Escapes to shuttle their kids to school in boxy micro-SUVs. Cops patrol city streets in tiny vans with motorcycle-size engines. And even construction workers discard their Chevy Silverados for squat little flatbed trucks. Who cares if hitting highway speeds takes a few more seconds? Just imagine how much money Americans would save at the pump.
Don’t get your hopes up. Even with Trump’s support, an American kei car may just be a pipe dream. Although companies like Toyota, Nissan, and Honda have become global giants with factories all over the world, kei cars largely aren’t sold as new cars outside Japan and other parts of Asia. (They’re sometimes called Galápagos cars, after the distinct species on those islands that evolved in isolated ways with few natural competitors.)
Honda and Toyota probably could have made kei cars in the U.S. long ago if they’d wanted to. But ensuring that something like the N-Box meets American crash-safety regulations is another story. At Trump’s urging, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said he wants to “clear the deck” for micro-cars by changing the safety regulations—a process that can take years. (I asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for specifics on the plan to bring kei cars to America, but did not hear back.) Compared with what’s sold in Japan, kei cars would need costly upgrades or even a total redesign to ensure that they could survive a crash with a Chevrolet Tahoe. In other words, the Galápagos car would need to face a new kind of predator.
Such changes would likely erode the cheap price tag, and still may not be enough to convince Americans that they’re safe behind the wheel of a tiny car when our roads are full of giant SUVs. There is a big difference between someone who imports a 25-year-old kei car as a fun or useful second vehicle and someone who buys a brand-new car expecting it to do anything and everything.
Still, if Americans really want cheaper new cars—and right now, they say they do—then something has to give. That may be profits at the auto companies. Although some executives must have cheered the White House’s new laissez-faire approach to fuel economy, they may have been screaming internally at this new edict to make smaller and cheaper cars. Big, expensive trucks and SUVs are among thebiggest profit-drivers for automakers, and lately, they are key to offsetting the bills from Trump’s own tariffs. Automakers would much rather sell you a pricey, high-margin F-150, even if you don’t need all of that towing and hauling capacity—and even though a little Subaru kei truck could handle much of that just fine for a fraction of the cost.
So far, the auto industry has had little choice but to fall in line with Trump’s agenda, walking back years of promises on electric vehicles and hastily announcing big investments in the U.S. Its CEOs came to the White House to celebrate relaxed fuel-economy rules; then they were told to make cheaper and less profitable new cars. Americans now get to find out how seriously these carmakers take their marching orders from the president.
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