Trump wants tiny Japanese-style cars for US even as he cuts mpg goals - Ars Technica
Category: News & Politics
Via: bob-nelson • 11 months ago • 11 commentsBy: Jonathan M. Gitlin - Ars Technica
Even the first Trump administration had tougher fuel economy targets.
Lots of articles about cars, today.
'Course... everything is politics, isn't it?
There are links in the seed.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Honda N-One is a Kei car, but I doubt Trump would like this one because it's electric. Credit: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images
It's been less than a year into the second Trump administration, and to many outside observers, US government policies appear confusing or incoherent. Yesterday provided a good example from the automotive sector. As has been widely expected, the White House is moving ahead with plans to significantly erode fuel economy standards, beyond even the permissive levels that were considered OK during the first Trump term.
Yet at the very announcement of that rollback, surrounded by compliant US automotive executives, the president decided to go off piste to declare his admiration for tiny Japanese Kei cars, telling Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to make them street-legal in the US.
50.4 mpg 40.4 mpg 34.5 mpg
A little over a decade ago, the Obama administration announced new fuel economy standards for light trucks and cars that were meant to go into effect this year, bringing the corporate fleet fuel economy average up to 50.4 mpg. As you can probably tell, that didn't happen. It wasn't a popular move with automakers, and the first Trump administration ripped up those rules and instituted new, weaker targets of just 40.4 mpg by 2026.
With the change of government from Trump to Biden, the rollback was reversed, and more ambitious fuel economy targets became official policy. The targets required a lot more EVs to be sold, at least until the second Trump administration began in January.
By the end of that month, Duffy had already ripped up the Biden fuel economy standards, blaming them for making cars too expensive. In March, the US Environmental Protection Agency threw out its versions of the fuel economy regulations, with the EPA claiming that the US auto industry had been "hamstrung by the crushing regulatory regime."
Further attacks on an efficient, clean fleet arrived this summer. The budget bill passed by a Republican-controlled House and Senate stripped electric vehicle incentives from the tax code, and the federal government revealed it would no longer fine automakers who exceeded the corporate average fuel economy targets.
Now, automakers would only be required to reach a fleet average of 34.5 mpg by model year 2031, versus the 50.4 mpg that Biden wanted (and which was the original 2025 target for the Obama administration). This would make cars cheaper to the tune of a little more than $900, the Department of Transportation says, but that fails to take into account the added cost of all that extra fuel from cars that consume 30 percent more of it than they were going to.
While consumers will feel the added cost, the automakers look to do all right. According to a document seen by Reuters, the lower fuel economy target will save companies $31 billion by 2031, with GM saving $8.7 billion and Ford and Stellantis both saving more than $5 billion in compliance. The move was praised by Ford CEO Jim Farley while he visited the White House. "Today is a victory for common sense and affordability… We believe that people should be able to make a choice," Farley said.
I'll believe it when I see it
Whether Farley will now commit his factories to yet another big disruption to build the diminutive city cars that have caught the president's attention remains to be seen. Japan's Kei car regulations are perhaps the antithesis of the American body-on-frame SUV.
Kei cars are allowed to be no larger than 11.2 feet (3.4 m) long, 4.9 feet (1.48 m) wide, and 6.6 feet (2.0 m) tall, with an engine no larger than 0.66 L and a power output of 63 hp (47 kW) or less. They're small and slow, but they're also very interesting in terms of design, filling niches from a two-seat roadster to a cabover pickup truck. Oh, and they're all right-hand drive because they're only really sold in Japan.
That's not to say you can't find Kei cars in the US. The folks at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, have a whole bunch, some of which we even drove—a frankly terrifying experience when surrounded by massive trucks on an urban arterial highway, let me tell you. And people will import them, or help you import them, although registering a Kei car for road use can be hard or impossible, depending on the state you live in.
"They're very small, they're really cute, and I said, 'How would that do in this country," Trump asked, before announcing that "we're not allowed to make them in this country, and I think you're gonna do very well with those cars, so we're gonna approve those cars."
Jonathan M. Gitlin is the Automotive Editor at Ars Technica. He has a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology. In 2014 he decided to indulge his lifelong passion for the car by leaving the National Human Genome Research Institute and launching Ars Technica's automotive coverage. He lives in Washington, DC. 251 Comments
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Kei cars are great... for Japan...
Besides their size and crash test shortcomings, Kei Cars, due to the size of the engines, don't come with A/C. Add on kits are available but besides degrading the already questionable performance of the tiny engines, add-on A/C usually doesn't cool when the temps or humidity are above 90 degrees or 90 percent.
Do all Kei cars have crappy AC? | Japanese Mini Truck Forum
There is a limited market for farm and ranch applications, airports, golf clubs etc.
They are already here, so apparently, Trump's approval, once again, isn't necessary. And they ain't cheap.
Street Legal Japanese Mini Trucks and Vans — Minitrucks.net
They were created to lessen congestion in Japanese cities, and succeeded. There are ultra-light "cars" in Europe, too, because for some people they are sufficient... but Americans don't really understand "sufficient" in automobiles.
Kei Cars are limited to 660cc engine size in Japan but the probably wouldn't have those same limits here so if they were made legal they could easily have 1.0L or more engines. The Kei Cars that are being sold here now are all over 20 years old because that's the law for importing them. It's strange law because it limits Kei cars because they were made for the road in Japan but can't be used on the road in most US states but you can buy a brand new off road vehicle very similar to a Kei Car (utv, golf carts, various farm vehicles) as long as it was never intended to be a street vehicle and in some states drive those vehicles on the road, strange. I'd love to be able to buy a Kei Car for the road, I like the cabover pickups.
I don't think anyone would expect a Kei Car to be as safe as a full sized Car or Truck. As far as safety standards go, anyone can ride a scooter or trike through NYC with a 8-year-old kid holding a puppy on the back as long as they're wearing a helmet (the kid and driver not the puppy). In many states scooters and Trikes under 50cc don't even need to be registered or insured and the drivers don't need a license and there's not age requirement. Safety standards don't really kick in till you add that forth wheel then you need to build it like a Tank.
The other day, I seeded a video about US-sized pickups in Europe . I learned that US vehicle safety testing does not include risks to other vehicles. So whoever drives an Abrams is safe....
Europe requires safety for others. No tanks.
What about Chinese cars? No presidential forgiveness for them.
Maybe if Xiaomi slipped Donald a hundred million dollars.....
Really? I thought he could be purchased for less than that.
The Qatar 747 is worth about $400 million...
Well, okay, that leaves me out. LOL