Kei trucks are having their moment, but can you register one?
Words: Richard Edwards
Kei trucks are having their moment. Scroll through YouTube, Facebook or Instagram and you’ll find them hauling hay bales, carrying surfboards, being lifted on knobbly tyres, and generally winning over people who’d never have looked twice at a commercial vehicle. Now Toyota has joined in, reviving its Scion brand in the United States with a kei truck as its first model.
The Scion KEI-01 is a rebadged Toyota Pixis, which is itself a Daihatsu Hijet Jumbo Cab. It’ll be built in Indiana and sold to fleet customers from the second half of 2027, and to fit American rules it’ll be limited to 40km/h.
Kei trucks can already be imported and registered in New Zealand, and plenty are on our roads, but the rules decide which ones qualify.
That’s why we don’t recommend importing one yourself. There are plenty of dealers and importers who’ll happily sell you a truck that’s already here or bring one in for you. They know which trucks will pass entry certification and how to get the paperwork right, which takes away the risk of landing a truck that can’t be registered. The rules below are worth knowing so you can ask the right questions when you buy.
What a kei truck is
Kei trucks are built to Japan’s light-vehicle class, which limits engine capacity to 660cc and caps length and width. Nearly all of them use a three-cylinder petrol engine, and we’ll admit to a soft spot for the offbeat thrum of a triple working hard. The turbocharged versions make 47kW, and the traditional payload rating is 350kg.
The best-known models are the Suzuki Carry and the Daihatsu Hijet. Rebadged versions include the Mazda Scrum, Nissan Clipper and Mitsubishi Minicab, all based on the Carry, and the Toyota Pixis, which is a Hijet. Honda ended production of its Acty in 2021.
Can you import one?
Yes. Under New Zealand rules a kei truck is a class NA light goods vehicle, so it goes through the same entry certification as any other used import. That means an inspection by an NZTA-appointed entry certifier and proof of ownership, followed by a warrant of fitness and registration. For any vehicle of 660cc or less from Japan, NZTA also wants the original export certificate issued by Japan’s Light Motor Vehicle Inspection Organisation.
Because it’s a goods vehicle, a kei truck doesn’t have to meet the frontal impact standard, which applies only to passenger vehicles in classes MA, MB and MC. Two other rules decide which trucks can be registered.
The first is electronic stability control. Since 1 March 2020, every used class NA vehicle inspected at the border has had to have ESC, and it has to work: inspectors will flag a vehicle if the ESC warning light stays on with the engine running. Kei trucks were late to get it, and Suzuki only made ESC standard across the Carry range in August 2021, so many trucks from the 2000s and 2010s can’t be registered here.
The second is exhaust emissions. A used petrol vehicle has to meet an approved standard such as Euro 5, Japan 2005 Low Harm or Japan 2018.
Neither the ESC nor the emissions requirement applies to a vehicle that was manufactured or first registered overseas more than 20 years before its entry certification. For anything being certified now, that means trucks built before late 2006.
The trucks that can be registered are those more than 20 years old and newer ones fitted with ESC. Whoever imports the truck also has to account for its CO2 emissions under the Clean Vehicle Standard.
If your truck will never leave the farm or orchard, it doesn’t need registration or a WoF. It can’t legally be driven on a public road without them, though.
Safety
In a cab-over kei truck you sit above the front wheels with a thin panel ahead of you, so your legs are well inside the crumple zone. None of these trucks carries an ANCAP rating, and older trucks brought in under the 20-year exemption don’t need ESC, which most from that era don’t have.
The payload is modest, so loading one like a full-size ute will affect how it stops and steers. The Scion is rated at 272kg.
Several newer Carrys on Auto Trader list Suzuki’s Dual Camera Brake Support, and Daihatsu’s 2026 Hijet update brought its Smart Assist safety system into line with Japan’s latest rules.
What’s on Auto Trader
At the time of writing, Auto Trader had 15 Suzuki Carrys and 33 Daihatsu Hijets listed. The Hijet count includes a few vans.
Most are late-model trucks with delivery kilometres, priced between about $22,000 and $29,000:
- 2026 Carry 4WD manual flat decks at $23,990
- 2025 and 2026 Hijet 4WD tippers from $25,990 to $27,990
- Hijet Jumbo, the extended-cab version the Scion is based on, from $23,590 to $27,590
Used examples cost less:
- 2022 Carry KC manual with 86,755km, $12,911
- 2020 Carry automatic with 64,240km, $12,911
- 2019 Hijet Jumbo automatic with 76,170km, $14,911
- 2019 Hijet 4×4 manual with 41,836km in Invercargill, $15,650
There are some specialised versions too, including a 2021 Hijet with a refrigerated body at $24,911.
At the older end:
- 2004 Carry with 41,271km in Gore, $11,730
- 1998 Mitsubishi Minicab in Northland, $8,490
Other listings include four Nissan Clippers, among them new 2023 4WD tippers at $24,995, and a 2021 Toyota Pixis 4WD at $19,988. There were no Honda Acty, Subaru Sambar or Mazda Scrum listings.
