Toyota is expanding its lineup in the United States by going small, unveiling plans to start making a minicar at a plant in Indiana and selling it under a resuscitated brand name.
The Japanese carmaker said Tuesday that sales of the KEI-01 “ultra-compact utility truck,” which has a maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour, will begin late next year. It’s the first vehicle under a revived Scion nameplate, which Toyota initially retired a decade ago after it failed to catch on among its target audience of younger buyers.
While a novelty in the U.S., where these vehicles don’t meet federal standards for high-speed roads, minicars account for about one-third of all new-vehicle sales in Japan.
The name — KEI — is Japanese for “lightweight” and shorthand a whole vehicle class in that country, where the pint-sized and cheap cars enjoy lower taxes in exchange for strict limits on horsepower and size.
Toyota hasn’t disclosed the price of its U.S. mini.
The move follows a plea last year by U.S. President Donald Trump for U.S. production of the miniature models, apparently after seeing them on a trip to Japan following a trade deal between Washington and Tokyo.
The four-wheel-drive mini car sports a sub-1.0-liter, three-cylinder engine that is more common for motorcycles on U.S. roads, and initially will be sold only through Toyota’s commercial sales channel for buyers of 10 or more vehicles. The company said it “may consider expanding availability to limited retail sales at a later date.”
Toyota also debuted two concept vehicles for the Scion brand, an all-terrain vehicle called the SxS and a two-wheeled electric scooter known as the BKE.
“Scion by Toyota gives us a place to challenge conventional thinking, explore new possibilities and create mobility in new ways,” Simon Humphries, the company’s design chief, said in a statement.
Production capacity for the KEI-01 mini car wasn’t specified but will likely be limited by the relatively modest $34 million investment Toyota is making in retooling equipment at the Indiana plant.
The world’s largest automaker pledged last year to spend $10 billion on manufacturing operations in the U.S. over a five-year period. Since then, it has announced more than $5.5 billion in spending plans for its facilities in America.
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