Scion Is Back, Baby, and It’s Bringing Tiny Kei Trucks With It

Toyota is finally bringing tiny Kei trucks to the US. If you’ve ever wanted to buy one of those tiny but extremely functional micro-pickups from Japan but didn’t want to wait until it’s 25 years old and deal with the cost of importing one, this is your solution (maybe). It’s called the Scion by Toyota KEI-01; it has four-wheel drive and a flat bed, and it will be assembled in Indiana. Yes, Indiana.

What exactly is a “Kei truck,” though? It’s a segment of tiny, low-powered vehicles made to fit a special tax class in Japan (regular car tax and registration are astronomically expensive there), and they’ve long been far too small and slow for American buyer demands (and crash standards).

Formerly Forbidden Fruit

Kei trucks from Toyota, Suzuki, Daihatsu, and other brands have started showing up in the US in recent years because of our 25-year vehicle import laws. It turns out a lot of people want tiny pickup trucks. Of course, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the folks who went that route, with the government occasionally seizing them or US manufacturers suing over copyright infringement and ordering the vehicles destroyed, as VW did in 2023.

Toyota is going to bring one of its kei trucks to the US, making it the first automaker to do so. It is also relaunching Scion, which made affordable compacts from 2003 to 2016, as Scion by Toyota, which it says is “a new brand built around curiosity, possibility and the freedom to explore mobility in new ways.”

They Kei To Our Hearts

The first truck is called the KEI-01, and it is tiny. At just five feet wide and 11 feet long, it’s a foot narrower than a Corolla and four feet shorter. You could put it in the bed of a long-bed Tundra pickup with the tailgate down, if you were feeling frisky.

But don’t discount the tiny trucklet; it can hold 600 pounds in the bed, and it’s strong enough to tow small trailers. The bed is completely flat, and all three sides fold down for easy access. It has standard four-wheel drive with locking differentials, plus heat and air conditioning. It’s kind of like a side-by-side that hung out in a car factory for a while.

A Particularly Rugged Golf Cart, A Very Refined Side-By-Side

It sounds perfect, right, so what’s the catch?

Toyota isn’t even going to try and make the KEI-01 meet the same safety standards as a Corolla or Tundra. Instead, the 01 will be sold as a low-speed vehicle (think golf carts). That’s a special category of vehicle that can be used on some public roads, but can’t go faster than 25 miles per hour. It’s also still going to be right-hand drive, which would make drive-thru interactions awkward.

Who does Toyota think wants a 25 mph minitruck with the steering wheel on the wrong side? The targets include farmers and ranchers, city works departments and university campuses, urban delivery, and outdoor hobbyists. 

Some of those groups are already importing 25-year-old kei trucks from Japan, making this brand-new and warrantied truck appealing. But those grey-market import trucks can go anywhere and hit highway speeds, which takes away from some of the benefits of new. 

The target puts it up against imported trucks that can go farther and faster, as well as UTVs like the Polaris Ranger. A UTV like the Ranger can go much faster, tow 2,500 pounds, and hold 1,000 pounds in the bed. 

Built In the USA

Toyota plans to assemble the trucks at its Indiana plant, the same place that builds the Grand Highlander. The truck starts life as a rebadged Daihatsu Hijet Jumbo and will be imported as parts and assembled there to avoid the 25% Chicken Tax tariff on imported pickups. This is called CKD, or Complete Knockdown, and it’s been done before by many manufacturers, like Ford with its original Transit Connect vans. Toyota says it will add around 50 jobs at the plant.

The trucks will hit the road starting in the second half of next year. Toyota said it will focus on fleet sales first, and that the trucks will be available through a small network of existing Toyota stores. 

Toyota did not announce pricing, but the trucks will have to be cheap to compete. At home in Japan, one of these trucks starts at 1.3 million yen including tax. Just over $8,000. 

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