Kei

  • 2016 Mitsubishi i-MiEV Quick Drive  -  Portland OR  -  July 2015   [photo: Doug Berger]

    The Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car deserves a place in history. It was arguably the first mass-produced modern electric car put on sale, well before the Nissan Leaf arrived in December 2010. Pre-production i-MiEVs were operating in test fleets in Japan as early as 2007, and it was on sale in that country even as Tesla struggled to get its Roadster into production in late 2009. DON'T MISS: 2016 Mitsubishi i-MiEV: Drive Report Of 62-Mile Electric Minicar This pioneering electric car was adapted from the clever design for the Mitsubishi "i" kei car, designed for Japan's special class of minicar...

  • Honda N-Truck and N-Camp travel trailer concept, Japanese Camping Car Show, Feb 2015
    Honda N-Truck Kei Concept: World's Tiniest Travel Trailer, Too Cute For Words

    Sometimes there are cars that just make you grin. So how can you not love a tiny Japanese kei car, their minier-than-minicar class, converted into a pickup truck with its own matched travel trailer behind it? DON'T MISS: Japan's Government Clamps Down On Tiny Kei Cars, Fearing Irrelevance Kei cars...

  • 2014 Mitsubishi i-MiEV
    Nissan And Mitsubishi To Join Forces On Low-Cost Electric Minicar

    Mitsubishi was the earliest maker to launch a modern battery-electric small car and sell it in volume, and Nissan has emerged as by far the world's highest-volume seller of electric cars. Now the two makers have announced they're teaming up to develop an inexpensive electric minicar. According to...

  • Honda's N-One retro minicar - image: Honda Motor Co
    Japan's Government Clamps Down On Tiny Kei Cars, Fearing Irrelevance

    Japan does small cars like no other country on earth--mainly because they have to. The nation's Kei-jidosha car class was set up to make a class of car that was cheaper to run, easier to own and small enough to ease parking and minimize congestion. Now, reports The New York Times, these distinctive...

  • Daihatsu FC-Deck Concept, 2013 Tokyo Motor Show
    2013 Tokyo Motor Show: Green Car Preview

    The 2013 Tokyo Motor Show is almost upon us. And while the Los Angeles Auto Show might hold more relevance for the U.S. market, Tokyo's offerings can never be discounted entirely. Weird and wonderful some may seem but many feature the kind of technology we'll soon be seeing in our road cars. And of...

  • Engine bay of Caterham's upcoming entry-level model
    Tiny Kei-Car Engine For Iconic Caterham 7 Sports Car

    Putting a tiny engine in a hairy-chested sports car doesn't seem like the perfect recipe for fun, but British sports car companies have always been a little... different. Caterham is one of those companies. Back in 1972, it bought the rights to Colin Chapman's lightweight Lotus Seven sports car...

  • Honda's N-One retro minicar - image: Honda Motor Co

    You don't need us to tell you that the Japanese car market is about as far-removed from the U.S. market as it's possible to get. Where big trucks still dominate in North America, vehicles that almost fit in the average truck's pickup bed make up almost half of all Japanese car sales. Those cars are known as kei cars, or keijidōsha--"light automobiles". Size matters Conforming to a strict set of rules and regulations, Japan's smallest offerings started like their tiny counterparts in Europe, providing inexpensive transport in the post-war era. But as Japan's roads became ever more crowded...

  • Honda's N-One retro minicar - image: Honda Motor Co
    Japan's Tiny 'Kei' Cars Set For Increasing Electrification

    Kei-jidosha, or 'Kei cars' are one of our favorite "forbidden fruits" here at Green Car Reports. Strict tax, insurance and parking regulations in Japan result in vehicles designed to set dimensions and engine sizes. So specific are they to Japanese roads and market conditions, they're rarely sold...

  • Honda N One  -  Driven in Japan, 11/2012
    Honda N One: Quick Drive

    The retro-styled Honda N One, which goes on sale in Japan this month, is super-cute—nodding to the original 1967 Honda N360—and looks perfect for space-confined urban duty. It's possible at first glance, from a distance, to liken the N One to the Mini Cooper or Fiat 500 and see it...

  • Honda's N-One retro minicar - image: Honda Motor Co
    Honda Starts Sales Of N-ONE Retro Minicar

    If you subscribe to the theory that Honda keeps all its really cool products in its home market of Japan, the announcement that the N-ONE retro-styled minicar has hit the market probably won’t do much to convince you otherwise. The N-ONE joins the N BOX and N BOX + models in Honda’s...

  • Suzuki Wagon R, Japan's highest selling vehicle
    Half Of Japan Now Drives High MPG, Low Power Kei Minicars

    If there's one thing that illustrates the culture difference between the United States and Japan better than anything else, it's the cars everyone drives. In the U.S, the Ford F-Series truck has dominated the sales charts for quarter of a century. The smallest engine available is a 3.5-liter...

  • sketch of wider, U.S.-specification 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV
    Wider 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV For U.S. Market: First Sketch

    We've been waiting eagerly for more details of the modified U.S.-spec 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car. Now, Mitsubishi has started the long tease. The company tweeted a sketch this morning that shows a wider, slightly more angular i-MiEV that still preserves the now-familiar shape of the...

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