Kei cars would be great in America and I would fully accept laws supporting them as an effort to reduce dependence on big consumptive engines in our transition to electric mobility.
Kei cars don't have the crash safety required for US roads, speeds and the traffic they need to share the roads with. A crash between a Kei and a US truck at 55 mph would be a bloodbath.
Keis work in Japan because the average speed is much lower and you're more likely to get into an accident with another kei.
I see a lot of people making the argument of “a bigger car is safer when crashing with other cars”, but that’s not very sustainable when everybody thinks the same. A US truck is small when everyone is driving a monster truck to protect themselves from “normal” trucks
Better mileage than a Prius without even being a hybrid seems like exactly the sort of reason why someone would want one. And with EVs coming, kei cars/trucks seem like perfect candidates for EV conversions.
Re: crash safety, I wonder if it's possible to retrofit some extra safety measures on these things?
>Re: crash safety, I wonder if it's possible to retrofit some extra safety measures on these things?
That's a good question for any older car. I can think of a number of measures, but it would be interesting to see some real engineering go into retrofits. Besides new/proper seat belts an interesting angle would be a partial roll cage that is safe for a helmetless driver.
I'd love to a have a Kei truck purely for around town (we don't have any traffic lights to give you an idea) in snowy weather. Small = good when the streets shrink due to plowing, small = good for dragging out of a ditch, cheap = good just because it's easy to hurt a car in serious snow.
> Re: crash safety, I wonder if it's possible to retrofit some extra safety measures on these things?
Mass and/or crumple zones help absorb and deflect energy in crashes. There's no room for a crumple zone in a kei car's perimeter. Smart Fourtwo got close, but those are as wide as a normal car.
And perfectly rigid vehicle is dangerous because it transmits the collision forces to the passengers - high G deceleration will destroy your organs