Meet the Sakura, the best-selling electric car in Japan. It has driver assistance, auto-parking, fast charging, bi-directional power, and acres of charm. The killer stat: It only costs $17,000.
So after reading the article, are you editorializing or did Wired change their title? No where does it mention the legality of selling the Sakura in North America. It only mentions that Nissan has not chosen to sell it outside of Japan.
They are like driving an ATV or go cart with a canopy though. Kinda scary to be going highway speeds in them around even other sedans. You do get used to it though. Just like anything else.
And riding motorcycles around these other cars feels like riding a motorcycle. If Smart can make a NA compliant car, there must be some kind of way to make a near-Kei car compliant.
Out of curiosity, I looked if Smart met Kei regulations with the ForTwo. The officiall Kei variant, the Smart K, only had 2 modifications and 1 restriction. The track width was narrowed and the fenders were slimmed in order to make it 1.5"(30mm) narrower and the only engine available was the 600cc.
And while Americans like to make assumptions about North American markets because they’re generally cross-compatible, they vary greatly. Mexico is full of compacts and ute chassis-mates such as Chevy Aveo/Montana, Fiata Strada/Ram 700, and VW Gol/Saveiro. Remember, the original VW Beetle (“Vocho”) was produced in Mexico until the 90s.
I’m sorry, but riding a motorcycle is vastly different than driving one of these, even the posture from riding to sitting makes a huge difference in comfort, but also these things are claustrophobic as hell, most people don’t realize just HOW small these actually are.
Imagine riding your bike and being enclosed by glass by an inch everywhere, your comfort would drop massively.
So after reading the article, are you editorializing or did Wired change their title? No where does it mention the legality of selling the Sakura in North America. It only mentions that Nissan has not chosen to sell it outside of Japan.
Kei cars are illegal to purchase in certain states because of the comparitave danger they face due to the size of other vehicles.
States include: Georgia, Maine, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Michigan.
so nothing to do with being an EV, an import, or anything like that as most people would assume.
They are like driving an ATV or go cart with a canopy though. Kinda scary to be going highway speeds in them around even other sedans. You do get used to it though. Just like anything else.
And riding motorcycles around these other cars feels like riding a motorcycle. If Smart can make a NA compliant car, there must be some kind of way to make a near-Kei car compliant.
Out of curiosity, I looked if Smart met Kei regulations with the ForTwo. The officiall Kei variant, the Smart K, only had 2 modifications and 1 restriction. The track width was narrowed and the fenders were slimmed in order to make it 1.5"(30mm) narrower and the only engine available was the 600cc.
And while Americans like to make assumptions about North American markets because they’re generally cross-compatible, they vary greatly. Mexico is full of compacts and ute chassis-mates such as Chevy Aveo/Montana, Fiata Strada/Ram 700, and VW Gol/Saveiro. Remember, the original VW Beetle (“Vocho”) was produced in Mexico until the 90s.
I’m sorry, but riding a motorcycle is vastly different than driving one of these, even the posture from riding to sitting makes a huge difference in comfort, but also these things are claustrophobic as hell, most people don’t realize just HOW small these actually are.
Imagine riding your bike and being enclosed by glass by an inch everywhere, your comfort would drop massively.
Dude it’s real life Mario kart. I’m down.