Kei Cars: The Little Cars That Can

In the Western world, cars seem to have been getting bigger.  For example, my early 2000 Volvo S70, a generous sedan when it came out, is shorter than the more modern “little” hatchbacks in the supermarket car park beside it.  However, this isn’t the case around the world.  In Japan, congestion is a problem in busy cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto, so one of the solutions was to introduce what are known as kei cars, also known as compact cars. Some people call these K-cars, as this is approximately the way the word “kei” is pronounced.

The concept of kei cars isn’t new; in fact, the Japanese government introduced the general idea and legislation related to these vehicles in the late 1940s as part of the post-WWII recovery efforts.  Back then, it was more about encouraging car ownership and stimulating the local automotive industry (and you can see for yourself how well that worked, given the number of Japanese makes on Australia’s roads).  Today, however, it’s more about congestion and fuel consumption.

What is a kei car?  As the Japanese name suggests (in full, it’s kei-jidōsha), it’s a small car.  Specifically, it’s one that has restrictions on its size, both in terms of its dimensions and its engine displacement.  To qualify as a kei car, an automobile has to be no taller than 2 metres, no wider than 1.45 metres and no longer than 3.4 metres.  In terms of engine displacement, the maximum allowed is 660 cc. There’s no official limit on engine power, but it’s very unusual for a factory kei car to have more than 47 kW.  Not that tuning and tweaking to get a bit more power is out of the question for those interested… Most of them are speed-limited to 140 km/h, which makes sense, given that these are designed for crowded city streets, not open road rural running.  The width means that they don’t handle quite as well at high speeds, so that’s another reason why their top speed isn’t as high as what you’d find with the average Toyota Corolla.

Needless to say, electric kei cars are out there as well.

To encourage the adoption of kei cars, the Japanese government has a few incentives set up.  If a car qualifies to have the distinctive yellow kei plates, it’s exempt from the need to buy parking space (apparently, to buy a car in Japan, you first have to buy street space to park it).  Various on-road taxes are reduced with kei cars, as these taxes are based on things such as the engine displacement and the weight. 

Now, we all know that where there are large numbers of people, there are houses to fix and goods to be transported, which require vans and trucks.  Your typical kei car has the sort of cargo space that would suit a minimalist (Marie Kondo would love these, if she doesn’t already).  However, kei vans and kei trucks are a thing – although we’d call latter kei utes, as they’re “pickup truck” rather than a miniature version of a big old Scania.  The kei vans or microvans are allowed to be taller than the kei cars, which allows the to carry more of a load and has earned them the nickname of “miàn bāo chē” (meaning “bread loaf cars” in nearby China. The kei trucks have the same basic wheelbase but a cab-chassis layout.

Because of their low fuel consumption, suitability for urban settings, kei cars and their relatives are growing in popularity in other parts of the world outside Japan.  Their general cuteness relates to another Japanese concept, namely the kawaii (cute) aesthetic.  Although many customers in Australia are leery about very small cars, given that physics says that they’re not going to come off well in a collision with an SUV, some popular kei marks are found in the Aussie market. Do any of these sound familiar?

• Suzuki Alto
• Suzuki Jimny
• Misubishi i-Miev
• Smart ForTwo (this one is unusual, as it’s a kei car that’s not from a Japanese marque).

These are all “regular” cars that meet the criteria for kei cars that you can find down at your local dealer (which is why we have them in our reviews page).  Plenty of people also arrange for private imports of popular kei cars such as various Daihatsu models, the stylish Honda Beat coupe convertible, the Suzuki Every van, the Toyota Copen sports car and the Subaru Sambar, just to name a few. There’s even a kei version of the Mitsubishi Pajero, the Pajero Mini.

Hilux Baby Ute a Champ

I think plenty of people would love to get their mitts on Toyota’s cute baby Hilux.  Due to the Champ’s very no frills disposition, the cost of buying a new Toyota Champ Hilux would only be around $20k if you could buy one here in Australia.  However, we’ll have to wait and see if the new Hilux Champ actually makes it down under.

Toyota have launched the new Hilux Champ in Thailand, and it was a vehicle that featured, for the first time, at the recent Japan Mobility Show.  At this show, it was displayed in numerous configurations to show just how versatile the little Champ can be, and so it was demonstrated as an off-road vehicle, a coffee van, and even as an ambulance. 

The Champ workhorse has plenty of variety in the way it can be built up, so, for example, there are long wheel-base (3085 mm) and short wheel-base (2750 mm) variants with two different cargo trays offered.  There are numerous holes for bolting down whatever you like to the cargo tray, so you could easily use this as a camper, a stock carrier for the farm, or even as a coffee van. The Champ’s payload for the cargo deck is around the 1-tonne mark.

You can also opt for any of three engines to power the little Champ.  Five-speed manual and six-speed automatic gearboxes are available to link with your specific engine of choice.  A rather nice 2.4-litre turbo diesel is good for 110 kW of power and 400 Nm of torque.  This would be an economical engine with loads of grunt for performing any demanding tasks with relative ease.  A 2.0-litre petrol has 102 kW and 183 Nm of torque, while a bigger 2.7-litre petrol produces 122 kW and 245 Nm of torque. 

Luxury isn’t the Champ’s forte, so even electric windows are found only on the higher-spec models (not that this is a bad thing – I kind of miss having roll-down windows that work when the key’s out sometimes).  The seats are upholstered in black vinyl, and there are a few safety features like seat belts, a strong structure, and two airbags.  There is no infotainment system on-board when sold new; however it does come with two speakers, for which you can access, probably via the driver’s instrument panel. 

The new Toyota Hilux Champ takes me back to the solid and reliable little 2WD Hilux and Nissan Navara utes of the eighties and early nineties.  These were no frills workhorses, but they were very dependable and robust work companions. And yes, I wouldn’t mind having one.

The Nissan Hyper Force Concept Car

There would be little debate over whether a Nissan GT-R is a legendary supercar or not.  It has been one of the most exciting cars of the last two to three decades, having even set a record on the Nürburgring racetrack of 7:08.68 min in 2013, which was achieved by the Nissan GT-R NISMO. 

Recently, the Nissan Hyper Force concept car stunned the crowds at a car show in Japan.  Could this concept potentially be the next new Nissan GT-R supercar?

The Nissan Hyper Force is an all-electric beast with a seriously brazen design suggesting time warp speeds!  In the car’s layout is an application of some clever revolutionary solid-state batteries that enable the supercar’s output to power up to 985 kW.  That’s almost 600 kW more than the current GT-R! It’s also good to see that solid-state batteries are starting to break out of the laboratory and into actual vehicles, as they have better safety performance.  However, these solid-state batteries are inside something that’s got that little hit of adrenaline. This electric vehicle is electrifying.

With this level of output, the Nissan Hyper Force Concept car is carefully aerodynamically designed to ensure the air is pushed over the car to force it down on the road.  In order to achieve the required levels of downforce, there are active winglets up the front end of the car to help channel air over the car, as well as a massive air scoop in the lower bumper, and an array of active fins for air manipulation.  If you look at the back of the vehicle, the telltale twin LED taillight clusters are very typical of the Nissan Skyline GT-R.  The massive wheel arches on the AWD machine look really spectacular, hiding what must be some serious rubber tyre profiles.  If I were making a Batman movie, I’d cast this vehicle as the latest iteration of the Batmobile.

The doors open upwards and forwards in a gullwing-like action.  Once the doors are opened, the onlookers are presented with a stunningly wild interior, featuring Lamborghini-crazy styling that is incredibly futuristic, offering sizzling red LED lighting vibes for high-speed driving modes.  Gentler GT modes light up the interior in a blue colour.  There are plenty of information displays and stylish graphics, as you’d expect.  The interior styling continues the edgy, angular diagonal lines of the exterior, giving a Batmobile vibe.  And did I see harness style seatbelts in there?

The Nissan Hyper Force concept was at the Japanese car show to inspire people, and to give them a taste of what a new roadgoing Nissan supercar (potentially GT-R) of the future might look like.  This is seriously cool! Here’s hoping that we’ll see some of the ideas trickling down. I particularly like the idea of the ambient lighting changing with the driving style, so I hope that we see that one in upcoming Nissan models. I’d also like to see the harness-style seatbelts making their way into regular cars, though they’d take a bit of getting used to, especially for a women (but they could easily be an improvement over the three-pointers we’re used to).

Find out more and have a drool in the official promo video from Nissan:

Some More Exciting Mazda News

If you are anything like me, then you’ll be driving along the highway spotting the cars coming the other way.  One of the snazzier brands out on the roads would have to be those from out of Mazda’s showrooms.  Mazda’s great variety of models all look great and boast some striking modern designs.  Even the new Mazda BT-50 ute, a very reliable workhorse, is looking pretty slick, and so too the family-oriented new Mazda 6 Sedans and Wagons.  Mazda also offers a wide range of brand new SUVs with sharp looking exteriors and endearing interiors that are well-equipped.  The small MX-30 is one of these SUVs, and it also has some cool new materials used inside the cabin – like the cork inlays that offset nicely against the premium leather trim.

Toyota, Mazda, Kia, and Hyundai sell the most cars in Australia; Toyota being out in front by a decent margin, with Mazda coming in at second place.  For quite some time, in Australia, Mazda has been a popular vehicle to buy.  Mazda’s 2022 sales of 43,687 are down 9% on this time last year, though Mazda retains its 2nd placing to Toyota’s 1^st place for overall sales.  Sales drops have occurred right across the market, thanks to the shortages of components and current logistical issues.  Mazda had sold 101,119 vehicles in 2021, quite a large portion of the whole pie, considering all the brands that are available to buy new in Australia.

So, what’s some hot off the press Mazda news?

You may have noticed a tidy looking compact SUV running our roads the past couple of years.  Mazda’s MX-30 is one of Mazda’s newer creations in recent times – gaining in popularity too.  The little Mazda MX-30 has been a key model for Mazda in that this has been Mazda’s model of choice for bringing new technologies, hybrid motoring, and EV motoring into their modern fleet of vehicles that will also lead them in a new direction for future motoring.

As the direction of future transport trends toward cleaner engines and lower emissions, Mazda launched a series of mild-hybrid powertrains.  We saw these first being used in the Mazda 3 and Mazda CX-30.  The Mazda MX-30 provided a mild-hybrid engine, but Mazda also made available their brand new pure-electric drivetrain available for the MX-30.  Designed purely for an emissions-free city commute, the Mazda MX-30 Electric uses its 107 kW to whistle up to 0-100 km/h in 9.7 seconds and up to a top speed of 140 km/h.  The driving range proves to be over 175 km, a handy dollop of motoring before recharging needs to happen.

Some other new Mazda technology which will be implemented will be that of a new small rotary engine as a supplementary power source.  With a NEDC (New European Driving Cycle) accredited range of 224 km, this will provide Mazda-buyers with another means of excellent low-emission city transportation.

Mazda’s approach to electrification is based on the customers’ demand for EVs, and the regional infrastructure available to support them.  Within 5 years, Mazda hope to introduce a new hybrid system alongside more battery-electric models in their line-up of new vehicles.  This is in response to the newer European emissions rules that come into effect.

Towards the end of this decade, Mazda’s entire line-up will offer fully electrified versions.  One model that has been talked about as being another exciting Mazda EV will be the little MX-5’s progression into EV powering.  Now that’s a tasty thought!