Kei cars would be great in America and I would fully accept laws supporting them as an effort to reduce dependence on big consumptive engines in our transition to electric mobility.
One can dream.
One can dream.
Keis work in Japan because the average speed is much lower and you're more likely to get into an accident with another kei.
as far as big consumptive engines, Kei Cars consume around 3-4 Liters/100km
a prius is not that much worse at 4.4 L/100km
It's all kind of moot anyway with EVs coming.
Re: crash safety, I wonder if it's possible to retrofit some extra safety measures on these things?
Is there enough room for batteries for them to have a reasonable amount of range?
That's a good question for any older car. I can think of a number of measures, but it would be interesting to see some real engineering go into retrofits. Besides new/proper seat belts an interesting angle would be a partial roll cage that is safe for a helmetless driver.
I'd love to a have a Kei truck purely for around town (we don't have any traffic lights to give you an idea) in snowy weather. Small = good when the streets shrink due to plowing, small = good for dragging out of a ditch, cheap = good just because it's easy to hurt a car in serious snow.
Mass and/or crumple zones help absorb and deflect energy in crashes. There's no room for a crumple zone in a kei car's perimeter. Smart Fourtwo got close, but those are as wide as a normal car.
And perfectly rigid vehicle is dangerous because it transmits the collision forces to the passengers - high G deceleration will destroy your organs