President Donald Trump said Friday that he has approved the domestic production of so-called “tiny cars,” the latest affordability-focused proposal brought forth by the president in recent weeks.
Since November, Trump has simultaneously claimed that affordability, the top-ranked issue in last month’s elections, is a “hoax” cooked up by Democrats while pushing several initiatives clearly aimed at lowering costs for households.
“Manufacturers have long wanted to do this, just like they are so successfully built in other countries,” the president wrote Friday morning on Truth Social. “They can be propelled by gasoline, electric, or hybrid. These cars of the very near future are inexpensive, safe, fuel efficient and, quite simply, AMAZING!!! START BUILDING THEM NOW!”
Earlier this week, Trump suggested during an Oval Office event with U.S. auto executives that domestic car companies should produce their own versions of the tiny cars available in Asian markets.
“If you go to Japan, where I just left, if you go to South Korea, Malaysia, and other countries, they have a very small car, sort of like the Beetle used to be with Volkswagen,” the president said, calling the cars “really cute.”
“And I said, ‘How would that do in this country?’ Everyone seems to think good, but you’re not allowed to build them,” he continued. “I’ve authorized the secretary to immediately approve the production of those cars.”
Though no current regulation on minimum car size exists in the U.S., analysts say that Trump was likely referring to Japanese “kei” cars, a designated vehicle class produced by a number of Japanese manufacturers.
“It is a special class of vehicle designed specifically for the Japanese market,” Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research at Telemetry, explained to the Detroit Free Press. “In cities like Tokyo, you generally cannot register a vehicle unless you prove you have somewhere to park it in close proximity to your residence.”
However, Abuelsamid added that kei cars largely fail to meet U.S. crash standards, leaving domestic companies little incentive to invest in kei-like product lines.
“There are rules about the protection that must be provided to vehicle occupants in various crash scenarios and that usually requires some crush space to absorb the energy before it gets transferred to vehicle occupants,” he said. “If a company can figure out a way to meet the occupant protection requirements in a car the size of a kei, they are free to do it.”
