Why It’s So Hard to Import Small Trucks That Are Less Lethal to Pedestrians

A rise in rural Americans buying miniature trucks from Japan that meet their needs better than U.S. megacars is renewing calls for Congress to make it easier to buy smaller, safer vehicles from overseas — at least while U.S. automakers refuse to produce them here.

In a recent viral article for the Economist, Carmageddon author Daniel Knowles reported that U.S. demand is growing for small-format “kei trucks,” a Japanese micro-vehicle class created during World War II when full-sized car parts were expensive to produce. Those models, though, are increasingly sought-after among rural Americans today who want a pick-up that can actually fit through the doors of the average garage or barn.

Unlike U.S.-made models, kei trucks are subject to strict size and engine standards and generally top out at around 1,800 pounds. The average American pick-up, by contrast, weighs 5,000 pounds or more, and is significantly more lethal to pedestrians, cyclists and even the occupants of smaller cars because of their hulking size and massive blind spots.

Seen through that lens, some car fans argue that U.S. import laws are more “about protecting car companies and their dealers [from] so-called ‘grey imports’ [that] were eating heavily into automakers’ domestic profits” before the ban was enacted, to quote Jalopnik’s Alex George.

Sustainable transportation advocates might argue they’re also protecting an auto-centric status quo in which Americans are too afraid to walk, bike, or roll, lest they be struck by an outsized automobile — and that to shift the balance, Congress must take action to let mini-cars in.