Are Kei Cars Coming to the US? What's Legal in 2026

The short answer

No new kei car is on sale in the US. Federal law bars anyone from making, selling or importing a motor vehicle that doesn’t comply with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and isn’t certified to them, unless an exemption applies. NBC News reports that kei cars “fall short of federal vehicle safety standards, with many lacking even air bags.” The Covington law firm’s vehicle-safety team puts it bluntly for trucks: “new Kei trucks designed for highway use are de facto banned.”

For road use, what you can buy as of November 2026 is a kei car or truck that is at least 25 years old, because the safety-standard ban doesn’t apply to vehicles that old. Whether you can then register and drive it is up to your state.

• New kei cars: not for sale. A November 7, 2026 search of the Federal Register found no National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) document since December 1, 2025 that mentions kei vehicles or mini trucks.
• 25-year-old kei cars and trucks: exempt from the federal safety-standard ban. The test is the vehicle’s age (“at least 25 years old”), so check the build date, not just the model year.
• Newer mini trucks sold here: Covington notes that some minitrucks “are used exclusively off-road and therefore do not need to comply with the full suite of FMVSS.” Those aren’t a route to road plates.
• Road registration: Texas passed a law in 2025 to register them, Colorado’s law takes effect July 1, 2027, and Iowa’s code refuses registration without a federal safety label.

What happened to Trump’s “tiny cars” approval?

At a December 3, 2025 press conference with auto executives, President Trump said he had “authorized [Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy] to immediately approve the production of” kei trucks and cars in the US, and Duffy said the Department of Transportation had “cleared the deck” of regulations prohibiting the production of kei trucks. Days later, Trump announced on social media that he had “just approved TINY CARS to be built in America.” NBC News reported that his interest “appears to be about manufacturing similar small-sized cars in the U.S. rather than easing the process of importing them from Japan.”

Statements don’t change the safety standards. Covington’s December 2025 alert said “additional regulatory steps are required before these trucks could be manufactured or sold in the U.S. for on-road purposes.” NHTSA is the agency that would take those steps. A search of the Federal Register on November 7, 2026 for NHTSA documents published since December 1, 2025 returned zero results for “kei,” “mini truck,” “minitruck” and “microtruck”; the same search with no keyword returned 166 NHTSA documents. A rule worded around small vehicles in general wouldn’t show up under those words, so treat this as no kei-specific action, not proof of no action at all. Tifani Sadek, who directs the University of Michigan Law School’s Law and Mobility Program, told NBC News that “changing a federal rule simply takes time.”

The other federal route is an exemption, and it is small by design. Under three of the four exemption grounds, an exemption can cover no more than 2,500 vehicles sold in the US in any 12-month period and is granted for up to 2 years at a time; the fourth, for economic hardship, is open only to manufacturers that built no more than 10,000 vehicles in their latest production year. The Secretary of Transportation has to publish notice of each application and take public comments before deciding. Covington’s December 2025 assessment was that “the exemption pathway is unlikely to be a reliable option in the near term.”

Price is the other catch. A Daihatsu kei truck typically costs around $10,000 in Japan, NBC News reported in December 2025, and Mike Smitka, an emeritus economics professor at Washington and Lee University, and others told NBC that a US-built kei-style car would easily cost more than that. “You would have to make a car from scratch at the assembly plant level that would meet U.S. specifications, because retrofitting is brutally expensive,” Smitka said.

The legal way to get one now: the 25-year rule

The federal ban on non-compliant vehicles “does not apply to” a motor vehicle “that is at least 25 years old.” NHTSA’s import rules list it as one of the declarations an importer can make: “The vehicle is 25 or more years old.” The pool grows every year: a kei car built in 2001 turns 25 on the anniversary of its build date during 2026.

That rule is why the kei trucks driving on US roads are old ones: Covington says they “are permitted under a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) regulation that allows importers not to certify compliance with FMVSS of imported vehicles that are more than twenty-five years old.” David McChristian, a Houston firefighter who heads the Lone Star Kei advocacy group, told NBC News he bought his kei truck for $900 at an auction in Japan nearly three years earlier and paid another $2,500 in shipping. Treat that as one buyer’s story, not a price guide.

The safety exemption is one piece of the paperwork, not all of it. Before you buy, ask the importer to confirm the vehicle’s build date, to file the 25-year declaration for you, and to quote a landed cost that includes shipping, every duty and tariff in force on the day it arrives, and any other federal entry steps.

Can you drive one on the road? It depends on your state

Federal law decides whether an old kei vehicle can come in. Your state decides whether it gets plates, and NBC News describes “a patchwork of state laws,” with “some states barring them from public roads or restricting them to low-speed neighborhood streets.” Three states show the range:

Texas’s law never mentions kei vehicles by name. It covers a “miniature vehicle” with four or more tires that “complies with applicable federal law” and is not a custom vehicle, street rod, neighborhood electric vehicle, golf cart or off-highway vehicle. The sponsor’s statement of intent is explicit about the target: “S.B. 1816 seeks to provide clarity about the registration and highway operation of Kei vehicles in Texas.” You may drive one on a public highway only if it is registered and titled and “capable of operating in compliance with applicable traffic laws.” Ask the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to confirm your specific vehicle qualifies before you pay for it.

Colorado’s law is the one with a 2027 date: it takes effect July 1, 2027. The legislature’s summary of the act as passed says a kei vehicle must be titled, registered and obey motor vehicle traffic laws, and that “Driving a kei vehicle on a roadway that has a speed limit greater than 55 miles per hour or on a limited-access highway is prohibited.” The same summary says a kei vehicle is tested for emissions on a 2-speed idle test instead of a dynamometer, against “the emissions standards for the year it was manufactured,” and that the Department of Revenue and the Colorado State Patrol may not require an inspection just because it is a kei vehicle. Sellers need a dealer license to sell kei vehicles at retail.

Outside these three, call your state’s DMV before you pay for a vehicle or shipping. Ask whether it registers 25-year-old imports without a federal certification label, what emissions or safety inspection it requires, and which roads it lets you use.

Why can’t a kei truck count as a low-speed vehicle?

Federal rules do have a lighter standard for low-speed vehicles (LSVs), which need only a short list of equipment such as headlamps, turn signals, mirrors, a parking brake, a safety-glass windshield and seat belts. An LSV’s top speed can be no more than 25 mph. Covington notes that “most Kei trucks are too powerful and/or large to qualify under that category.”

What about electric kei cars?

They exist in Japan. Nissan unveiled the Sakura electric minivehicle in Japan on May 20, 2022, with a range of up to 180 kilometers (about 112 miles) on the Japanese version of the WLTC test cycle. Like other kei cars, a new one would need US safety certification or an exemption to be sold here, and NBC News reports kei “imports only allowed under an exemption for cars more than 25 years old.” Under the 25-year rule, a Sakura built in 2022 couldn’t come in until 2047.

If you want a small electric car instead, the list of every new electric car unveiled for 2026 shows what is coming and what you can order, and used EV prices are worth checking before you rule out a secondhand one.

What would have to change

Three routes could open the door to new kei cars. NHTSA could write a rule changing how certain safety standards apply to kei trucks, as it already has for low-speed vehicles; Covington, in a section pitching its services to manufacturers, says makers interested in new highway-use kei trucks “have a plausible path forward in the current regulatory reform environment.” A manufacturer could apply for an exemption, capped as described above. Or Congress could amend the vehicle Safety Act; Sadek’s verdict on that was “I am not holding my breath on this one.”

Watch NHTSA’s announcements and the Federal Register: any exemption application has to be publicly noticed for comment before it can be granted. Until one of the three happens, a new kei car in a US showroom is not on any official calendar.

Kei car questions

Can you buy a new kei car in the US?

No. Federal law bars selling or importing a vehicle that isn’t certified to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards unless an exemption applies, and NBC News reports kei cars fall short of those standards. A November 7, 2026 search found no NHTSA document in the Federal Register since December 1, 2025 that mentions kei vehicles or mini trucks.

When will kei cars be available in the US?

Old ones already are. A vehicle at least 25 years old can be imported without meeting current safety standards. New ones have no date: they would need an NHTSA rule change, an exemption, or an act of Congress, and under three of the four exemption grounds an exemption covers no more than 2,500 vehicles in any 12-month period.

Are kei trucks street legal?

It depends on the state. Texas’s SB 1816, aimed at kei vehicles, lets a miniature vehicle that complies with federal law be titled, registered and driven, and it took effect June 20, 2025. Colorado allows them from July 1, 2027, but not on roads over 55 mph or on limited-access highways. Iowa’s code requires officials to refuse registration unless the vehicle carries a manufacturer’s federal safety certification label.

When does Colorado’s kei law take effect?

July 1, 2027. Colorado’s HB25-1281 was signed May 9, 2025.

Are electric kei cars sold in the US?

Not new ones. Nissan’s Sakura, unveiled in Japan in May 2022 with up to 180 kilometers of range on the Japanese test cycle, is a Japan-market car, and NBC News reports kei “imports only allowed under an exemption for cars more than 25 years old.”

Sources (13)

• law.cornell.edu 49 U.S. Code § 30112 (Cornell LII)
• law.cornell.edu 49 U.S. Code § 30113, general exemptions (Cornell LII)
• law.cornell.edu 49 CFR § 591.5, import declarations (Cornell LII)
• law.cornell.edu 49 CFR § 571.500, low-speed vehicles (Cornell LII)
• cov.com Covington: Kei Trucks and U.S. Regulation (December 19, 2025)
• nbcnews.com Trump wants to bring Japan's tiny cars to America (December 25, 2025)
• federalregister.gov Federal Register API: NHTSA documents mentioning kei since December 1, 2025 (searched November 7, 2026)
• leg.colorado.gov Colorado General Assembly: HB25-1281, Register & Drive Kei Vehicles
• capitol.texas.gov Texas Legislature: SB 1816 enrolled text (89th Legislature)
• capitol.texas.gov Texas Senate Research Center: SB 1816 enrolled bill analysis
• capitol.texas.gov Texas Legislature Online: SB 1816 bill history
• legis.iowa.gov Iowa Code § 321.30 (Iowa Legislature, current code)
• global.nissannews.com Nissan: Sakura electric minivehicle unveiled (May 20, 2022)