Kei cars

A new breed of electric vehicles is drawing inspiration from Japanese kei cars, tiny cubes-on-wheels that are highway-legal but not likely to pass muster with US or EU safety standards. But what if we loosened up those standards to help lower prices, enabling broader adoption of EVs to people who don’t have 30 grand or more to spend on a car? That is, at least, one of the ideas that French automaker Renault’s head Luca de Meo has put on the table. 

Mitsubishi was one of the early pioneers of the modern EV era, launching the original iMiEV electric kei car on World Environment Day back in 2009. Against all odds, the iMiEV is still in production and, today, a fixture in EV markets across Europe and South East Asia – but this, too, must end. Mitsubishi is following up the iMiEV with a pair of new electric kei cars, led by the K-EV Concept X Style.