This is at least partially not 100% fact.
You can’t just put a lump of metal with an electric motor on the road. Safety requirements are necessary to not kill people you either hit or when it’s crashed.
Getting approvals costs a lot of money. You can bet this thing has never had a crash test.
I really think one of these would do less damage to a pedestrian than a Dodge ram or f150. And as long as the owners/occupants know they’re only getting the protection level of a golf cart I’m fine with them.
it’s not all about how much damage they can do, but also about how much they can protect the occupants: someone in a kei truck getting hit by a current f150 is more likely to die than getting hit by another reasonably-sized vehicle.
first step, though, is lowering speed limits across the board. i truly believe this is the first necessary step towards rehabilitating the US’s deranged auto-centric culture.
That’s true of sedans and hatchbacks too though. Any reasonably sized car is unsafe while sharing the road with the giant trucks and SUVs they’re making to skirt around emissions requirements. I know Kei trucks in particular further lack crumple zones and other protections, but they’re otherwise so practical I wish there was a way to get them approved. Not every vehicle should be built to double as a daily driver.
My long-term dream is a much less car-dependant society, where most people have access to public transit and vehicles like this are there for actual truck purposes.
Speed limits would be a nice change, if only because they could reduce the endless campaign to expand roads to make them safer at higher and higher speeds, but I think it’d be an endless, contentious fight with very little to prevent people (who’ve spent their whole lives dependant on cars for anything they need) from changing them back. I have been impressed with my city for gradually narrowing it’s streets and converting lanes into restaurant space, bike lanes, and I think parks.
That doesn’t explain why the Trump administration placed a 25% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles or why the Biden administration raised that to 100%. In order for a Chinese vehicle to meet those standards they have to do it for half the cost to compete with an equivalent American EV that would sell for the same price. Just like all domestic and import vehicles they would have to meet US safety standards but unlike Japan or Europe they have an artifical handicap placed on them to prevent competition. That’s the issue here.
