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The story
On November 9, 2026, Toyota announced it will bring a small vehicle based on Daihatsu’s “Hijet Truck Jumbo” kei truck to the US market under a new brand called “Scion” in the latter half of 2027. It will make an additional $34 million (about ¥5.3 billion) investment in its Indiana plant, and the two-seater, 3.35-meter-long vehicle will have its top speed capped at roughly 40 km/h (about 25 mph) to qualify under the US “low-speed vehicle” category. Reactions on 5ch were split, debating why the speed is being limited, what it means that it’s Daihatsu-made, whether larger-framed Americans could even drive it, and how this relates to the existing boom in importing used kei trucks.
Toyota Motor Corporation announced on the 9th that it will bring a small vehicle based on a Japanese kei truck to the US market in the latter half of 2027. It will make an additional $34 million (about ¥5.3 billion) investment in its assembly plant in Indiana.
The two-seater will be based on Daihatsu’s “Hijet Truck Jumbo” kei truck; pricing and sales volume have not yet been decided. To qualify under the US “low-speed vehicle” category, Toyota plans to cap its top speed at around 40 km/h. At just 3.35 meters long, the compact vehicle is expected to appeal to urban delivery businesses and similar users.
Toyota is establishing a new brand, “Scion,” aimed primarily at the US market, and will start off by producing the kei truck. Going forward, the company reportedly plans to roll out other vehicles too, such as buggies and foldable electric bikes.
Source: yomiuri.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
The safety standards were basically written specifically to target it, which turned Japanese kei trucks into illegal vehicles and got them kicked off American roads — that's why they had to come up with this clever 40km/h workaround.
Japanese kei trucks are popular precisely because they're small, haul cargo, and actually drive well.
According to Nikkei, it's basically the same as the old Midget, and apparently they're selling it right-hand drive.
It's a wholly owned subsidiary, duh~ (using an old cutesy meme phrase for emphasis)
Toyota can't win in EVs at all anymore, so at this point it's basically just coasting on its past legacy.
Sorry, but hybrids probably have 5 more years left in them at best.
After that, EVs take over the market for good.
Japan isn't even close to catching up with China's BYD and others on EV battery tech — the single most important piece of the puzzle — to the point where Toyota is even trying to outsource batteries from China to build its EVs.
On the software side too, when it comes to full self-driving, Japan is completely losing to both the US and China.
At this rate, Toyota risks being reduced to a company that just bolts Chinese batteries and American self-driving software into a shell it slaps its badge on —
making nothing but the low-value-add body and selling it under the Toyota name.
Doesn't that sound a lot like what happened to Japan's old PC makers?
People were saying that exact same thing 5 years ago too lol.
Go on, name one company that's actually "winning" in EVs lol.
Toyota's always been that kind of company to begin with, hasn't it?
It means enthusiasts over there get easier access to a brand-new chassis and engine.
The ones who are into it will mod the hell out of it in no time.
No shaken (Japan-style mandatory vehicle inspection) to worry about over there, after all.
Stop ripping it off.
Daihatsu is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota.
Well, kei cars are a uniquely Japanese standard to begin with, so I guess that tracks.
Japanese kei trucks don't meet US public-road standards,
so apparently they're basically only allowed to be driven on farms or private property.
This is from an old article, but—
Texas, California, Washington, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma—
apparently they're legal in those states?
It depends on the state,
and once a vehicle hits 20 years old it gets treated as a classic car, which lowers the required safety standards.
No way a big-framed American could drive one of those, I'd think.
They're not gonna sell it with a manual — it'll be a CVT.
Like watching "Steve POV" videos and smashing the thumbs-up button lol
They're obviously not going to sell it as-is.
As-is it couldn't even carry anything heavy, so I'd bet they'll rework the suspension and running gear quite a bit too.
Swap the air cleaner and they'll probably have it doing something like 100 km/h, right?
"We Have Successfully Carried Out the Kei-Truck Surprise Attack"? (a parody of Japan's famous WWII Pearl Harbor attack telegram, "We have succeeded in the surprise attack")
A kei truck decked out as an MP patrol car at a US military base
The one from 25 years ago actually performed bett— (hey, what are you doi—
I heard American pickup truck beds aren't actually that different in size from a kei truck's cargo bed.
Why not? You totally can.
There's no way this competes with pickup trucks, even if you stood on your head.
Pickup trucks over there are basically what compact cars or run-around kei cars are in Japan.
Nobody's actually hauling cargo in them.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Capping the top speed at around 40 km/h isn’t a flaw — it looks like a deliberate design choice aimed at qualifying under the US “low-speed vehicle (LSV)” category. That category was originally created for golf carts and on-site utility vehicles: in exchange for keeping the top speed to around 25 mph (roughly 40 km/h), such vehicles are exempted from most of the crash-safety standards required of ordinary passenger cars. Under current rules, Japanese kei trucks can’t meet US crash-safety and emissions standards, which is why personal imports of used kei trucks — made possible via the “25-year rule” exemption for older-model-year vehicles — have spread in the US up to now. The thread comment that “the safety standards were basically written specifically to target them” appears to be a reaction rooted in that history. For Toyota to sell a brand-new vehicle through official channels, it would need to clear those crash-safety standards — so the real aim behind this announcement is likely that, by fitting the vehicle into the LSV category, Toyota found a path to sell it legally while limiting its speed. The thread was split between the view that the speed cap means the used-kei-truck import boom will keep going strong, and the view that official sales backed by dealer warranties will appeal to urban delivery businesses and the like.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “[Economy] Toyota to Bring a “Kei Truck” to the US Market… Capping Top Speed at About 40 km/h to Qualify as a “Low-Speed Vehicle”“.
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