Scion is back and it’s bringing a Kei truck to America. That sentence alone is enough to cause a number of Japanese vehicle fans (and people mourning the old Scion brand) to start calling their local Toyota dealer immediately. According to Toyota, the Scion by Toyota KEI-01 will be an American-made pickup from the automaker’s factory in Indiana, complete with right-hand drive and a 660cc engine right under the cab.
The KEI-01 looks like a classic Japanese Kei truck from the 1980s, but it’s decidedly modern with a CVT going to all four wheels, a modern infotainment system, a push button start, and — arguably most important — approval from the United States government for sale in the States.
There’s a caveat, however, with the new Scion. It’s classified as a Low-Speed Vehiclemeaning that it’s limited by law to 25 miles per hour. Anyone who regularly uses a golf cart, farming equipment, or has gone through the effort of importing a Kei truck in states they’re not considered road legal is probably already familiar with the classification. In short, it means that you can’t take it out on the highway.
Small and capable
Toyota wants to sell the truck to farmers, companies that need a small delivery vehicle, or anyone who wants a tiny truck — as long as they’re a fleet. That leaves individual buyers out in the cold, at least for now.
The KEI-01’s payload is rated at 600 pounds, which is a little under half that of a more conventional compact truck like the Ford Maverick. For such a small vehicle (just over 11 feet long), 600 pounds is really not too shabby. Power numbers haven’t been revealed yet, but given the limited top speed, it’s unlikely you’ll be towing horse trailers or winning any drag races in the KEI-01, but it looks like it will be plenty of power for tasks a little too tough for an ATV or side-by-side. The price has also not yet been revealed, which may have the most sizable impact on whether or not Scion makes a successful return back to the fold of Toyota.
The KEI-01’s debut was accompanied by two other concept vehicles, the BKE, and SxS. The BKE is a dual-sport bike made for city use, while the SxS is a monstrous Tacoma-powered off-road vehicle that Toyota has been refining for at least a year now. It showed off the SxS when Read visited the automaker’s testing facility in Arizona last year, but there’s still no word on a potential launch.
We’re still waiting on pricing info for the Scion KEI-01, but Toyota notes that it will likely reach the market halfway through 2027.