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Kei car, K-car, or (pronounced /ke?d?ido??a/), is a Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
ese category of small automobiles, including passenger car
Automobile

An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transportation passengers, which also carries its own car engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally f...
s, vans
Microvan

A microvan is a van that fits into Japanese kei car classification or similar. In certain regions, these models are inexpensive and widely used for small business because of tax and insurance benefits; for example, in Japan they are exempted from a certification that there is adequate parking available for the vehicle....
, and pickup trucks. They are designed to exploit local tax
Tax

To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon an individual or Legal person by a state or the functional equivalent of a state.Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entity....
 and insurance
Insurance

Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to Hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium, and can be thought of as a guaranteed small loss to prevent a large, possibly devastating los...
 relaxations, and in more rural areas are exempted from the requirement to certify that adequate parking
Parking

Parking is the act of stopping a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied for more than a brief time. Parking on one or both sides of a road is commonly permitted, though often with restrictions....
 is available for the vehicle. These standards originated in the times following the end of the Second World War, when most Japanese could not afford a full-sized car yet had enough to buy a motorcycle
Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a Single track, two-wheeled motor vehicle powered by an Motorcycle engine. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as Touring motorcycle travel, navigating Naked bike, Cruiser , Motorcycle sport and Motorbike racing, or off-road conditions....
.






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Kei car, K-car, or (pronounced /ke?d?ido??a/), is a Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
ese category of small automobiles, including passenger car
Automobile

An automobile or motor car is a wheeled motor vehicle for transportation passengers, which also carries its own car engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally f...
s, vans
Microvan

A microvan is a van that fits into Japanese kei car classification or similar. In certain regions, these models are inexpensive and widely used for small business because of tax and insurance benefits; for example, in Japan they are exempted from a certification that there is adequate parking available for the vehicle....
, and pickup trucks. They are designed to exploit local tax
Tax

To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon an individual or Legal person by a state or the functional equivalent of a state.Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entity....
 and insurance
Insurance

Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to Hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium, and can be thought of as a guaranteed small loss to prevent a large, possibly devastating los...
 relaxations, and in more rural areas are exempted from the requirement to certify that adequate parking
Parking

Parking is the act of stopping a vehicle and leaving it unoccupied for more than a brief time. Parking on one or both sides of a road is commonly permitted, though often with restrictions....
 is available for the vehicle. These standards originated in the times following the end of the Second World War, when most Japanese could not afford a full-sized car yet had enough to buy a motorcycle
Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a Single track, two-wheeled motor vehicle powered by an Motorcycle engine. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as Touring motorcycle travel, navigating Naked bike, Cruiser , Motorcycle sport and Motorbike racing, or off-road conditions....
. To promote the growth of the car industry, as well as to offer an alternative delivery method to small business and shop owners, kei car standards were created.

The cars feature yellow licence plates
Japanese license plates

In Japan, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of the national government issues vehicle registration plates for motor vehicles through Land Transportation Offices nationwide....
, earning them the name "yellow-plate cars" (black numbers on yellow background for private use and yellow numbers on black background for commercial use) in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 and Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
-speaking circles.

Because the regulations only restrict physical size, engine displacement and power, manufacturers have introduced many advanced technologies to the class. As a result, kei cars are often available with forced induction
Forced induction

Forced induction is a term used to describe internal combustion engines that are not naturally-aspirated engine. A gas compressor is added to the air intake instead, thereby increasing the quantity of oxygen available for combustion....
 engines, automatic
Automatic transmission

An automatic transmission is an automobile gearbox that can change gear ratios automatically as the vehicle moves, freeing the driver from having to shift gears manual transmission....
 and CVT
Continuously variable transmission

A continuously variable transmission is a Transmission which can change steplessly through an infinite number of effective gear ratios between maximum and minimum values....
 transmissions, front-, rear- and four-wheel drive
Four-wheel drive

Four-wheel drive, 4WD, 4x4 , or AWD is a four-wheeled vehicle with a Powertrain that allows all four wheels to receive torque from the engine simultaneously....
, hybrid drivetrains, air conditioning
Air conditioning

An air conditioner is an appliance, system, or Mechanism designed to extract heat from an area via a refrigeration cycle. In construction, a complete system of heating, Ventilation , and air conditioning is referred to as "HVAC." Its purpose, in a building or an automobile, is to provide comfort during either hot or cold...
, GPS and many other features.

Daihatsu, Honda
Honda

is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan.The company manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, scooter , robots, jet aircrafts and jet engines, all-terrain vehicle, water craft, electrical generators, marine engines, lawn and garden equipment, and aeronautical and other mobile technologies....
, Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi Motors

is the fifth largest automaker in Japan and the fifteenth largest in the world by global unit sales. It is part of the Mitsubishi keiretsu, formerly the biggest industrial group in Japan, and was formed in 1970 from the automotive division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries....
, Smart
Smart (automobile)

smart, formerly smart GmbH , an automotive brand of Daimler AG, is a manufacturer of microcars and supermini car based in B?blingen, Germany, produced in Hambach, Moselle ....
, Subaru
Subaru

is the automaker division of Japanese transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries .Subaru is internationally known for their use of flat engine in most of their vehicles....
, and Suzuki
Suzuki

is a multinational corporation headquartered in Hamamatsu, Japan that specializes in manufacturing compact automobiles, a full range of motorcycles, All-terrain vehicle, outboard motor, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal combustion engines....
 all manufacture kei cars. Nissan sells Mitsubishi and Suzuki models while Mazda
Mazda

is a Japanese automaker based in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. It is part owned by the Ford Motor Company.During 2007, Mazda produced almost 1.3 million vehicles for global sales....
 sells Suzuki
Suzuki

is a multinational corporation headquartered in Hamamatsu, Japan that specializes in manufacturing compact automobiles, a full range of motorcycles, All-terrain vehicle, outboard motor, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal combustion engines....
 models under licence badge engineering
Badge engineering

Badge engineering is a term that describes the badge of one product as another. Due to the high cost of designing and engineering a totally new model, or establishing a new brand , it is often more cost-effective to rebadge a single product multiple times....
.

History of regulations

Date Maximum length Maximum width Maximum height Maximum displacement Maximum power
four-stroke
Four-stroke cycle

Today, internal combustion engines in automobile, trucks, motorcycles, aircraft, construction machinery and many others, most commonly use a four-stroke cycle....
 two-stroke
Two-stroke cycle

The two-stroke internal combustion engine differs from the more common four-stroke engine by completing the same cycle in only two strokes of the piston, rather than four....
8 July 1949 2.8 m 1 m 2 m 150 cc
Cubic centimetre

A cubic centimetre or cubic centimeter is a commonly used unit of volume extending the derived International System of Units-unit cubic metre and corresponds to the volume of a cube measuring 1?1?1 cm....
 		100 cc n/a
26 July 1950 3 m 1.3 m 300 cc 200 cc
16 August 1951 360 cc 240 cc
4 April 1955 360 cc
1 January 1976 3.2 m 1.4 m 550 cc
March, 1990 3.3 m 660 cc
1 October 1998 3.4 m 1.48 m


Gallery


See also

List of kei car models
  • City car
    City car

    A city car is a small, moderately powered automobile intended for use in urban areas.It is comparable in size and features to a neighborhood electric vehicle , has four seats, and is typically long....
  • Microcar
    Microcar

    A microcar is an uncommonly small automobile. They were popularly referred to as cyclecars in the 1910s and 1920s and bubblecars in the 1950s and 1960s....
  • Microvan
    Microvan

    A microvan is a van that fits into Japanese kei car classification or similar. In certain regions, these models are inexpensive and widely used for small business because of tax and insurance benefits; for example, in Japan they are exempted from a certification that there is adequate parking available for the vehicle....
  • List of microcars by country of origin
    List of microcars by country of origin

    This is a list of microcars by country of origin. This list excludes cars over 700 cc, and cars where production or manufacture ended before 1945....
  • Kei truck


External links

  • ??????????? (Japanese)
  • , Andrew Mollet, Automotive World, March 1, 2003 (subscription required)