Kei-Cars for Europe!

Will the future, where emissions become more important and where taxes and running costs become more expensive, lead to smaller cars that are actually practical?

In the last few years the car manufactures (especially European brands) started to build bigger and bigger cars. One reason for that trend is the growing safety awareness and therefore stricter regulations and standards the manufactures have to follow. I’m not saying that safety isn’t important but some car concepts (SUVs for example) maybe are a little too much. Many potential customers and drivers are looking for a car that is cheap and useful. And in my opinion for these groups of people Kei-Cars could be the answer.
At first I’ll briefly explain the concept of Kei-Cars and why they are so popular in Asia. Kei-Cars were designed to comply with Japanese government tax and insurance regulations.

These cars are usually designed for commuting, fuel efficiency and space saving. And if we are honest cars this size are more than enough for commuting and shopping. And cities like London show that space saving could actually be a good thing. And with more drivers becoming obsessed with fuel efficiency, there is no reason why the Kei Car shouldn’t be a worthy option on any car salesman’s roster.
And before any of you brings up the ‘too small’ – reason I shall be quick to point out the fact that the Smart Fourtwo, the Mini Cooper, the Chevy Spark, and others are all road legal here, and they are smaller than most Kei Cars.
With car sharing becoming more and more relevant companies like DriveNow and zipcar could be interested in Kei-Cars as well. At the moment you can only choose between smaller city cars like Mini or BMW i3. With many Kei-Cars available as minivans and/or transporter you could get a small city car with some actual space to use.

With their super low emissions these cars would pass emission inspections with flying colors. And they would be cheap to purchase, own, and insure; all while still being tech-filled, easy to drive, and attractive to the eye.
Now that we got the practical aspects out the way I’ll focus on us petrolheads. As much as you can complain about the look and the small engine of a usual Kei-Car one thing will always get your agreement.
“Small and nimble sports cars are a joy to drive.”
And even these needs the Japanese manufactures have covered. I am sure many of you fancy “sports cars with a reasonable price. Let me give you a few examples.

I think you got my point. 
So with all those reasons I ask myself why there are no Kei-Cars in Europe. Is it because the costs to make them left-hand-drive are too high? Probably not otherwise we would have no Japanese cars at all. I think the two main reasons are the following:

1. The European Car-Lobby: When you take a closer look at the Volkswagen emission scandal you would be shocked to see how much influence the Car-Lobby has on politicians, restrictions and the EU itself. And of course they use this tool to keep the competition as low as they possibly can.
2. Taxation Systems: With the current taxation system in most of the European countries there is no real reason to get a car with 660ccm engine over a 1.2 – 1.5 litre engine.
   At the end I think that as long as people keep buying big cars they don’t actually need with money they don’t actually have, and no major tax benefits are established we won’t see many Kei-Cars here. For me this is kind of sad because I actually like the concept of Kei-Cars.
   Let me know what you think in the comments.

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