[xedeon]

The upcoming Toyota Hilux Champ is a modern alternative to the venerable Kei Truck.

https://www.motor1.com/news/701958/toyota-hilux-champ-cheap-...

I really hope Toyota brings it to the U.S. it will sell like hotcakes. I really like the modularity aspect the most.

[bamboozled]

The kei car or truck is a class of vehicles of a certain engine size in which owners don’t have to pay road tax in Japan. This includes Suzuki Jimny.

I don’t really see how one model of car can take on like 50 models of car ?

The champ looks larger than most kei cars anyway…so it’s a different class of vehicle.

[xedeon]

Key word is “alternative” which is what I alluded to. It fits most of the use cases of the Kei class of vehicles and the price is really attractive.

I was also referring outside of the Japanese domestic market. Which the Hilux Champ is slated to be released.

[bamboozled]

It's "kei" not key:

Kei car is the smallest category of Japanese, expressway-legal motor vehicles. 'Kei' is diminutive for kei-jidōsha, (kanji: 軽自動車), "light automobile" or "compact automobile" (pronounced [keːdʑidoːɕa]).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_car#Description

[xedeon]

You must have misread:

*Key word* is “alternative” which is what I alluded to. It fits most of the use cases of the *Kei* class of vehicles and the price is really attractive.

[nrp]

The Telo Truck is more directly a modern take on getting the most truck into the smallest footprint: https://telotrucks.com/

[xedeon]

Yeah, but that's an EV with a base price of $49,999, whereas the Hi-lux is around $10-12K. That's coming from someone who has been an all-EV household since 2017.

[sickofparadox]

It will not be brought to the US because of safety regulations (no airbags, among other things) and the chicken truck tariff[1].

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

[zdragnar]

Oh wow, that would do insanely well here.