Colorado Becomes the 30th State to Officially Allow Kei Cars

• Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed HB25-1281 into regulation immediately, formally permitting the state’s residents to register and drive kei autos.

• Kei vehicles, a category of small four-wheel autos from Japan, might be introduced into the U.S. underneath the 25-year import rule.

• Till now, Colorado lacked kei-specific rules, making a little bit of a grey space for homeowners.

Rating one other one for the little guys. At present, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed into regulation HB25-1281, which formally acknowledges kei autos as road-legal within the state and places in place the mandatory framework for his or her titling, registration, and use.

For the uninitiated, kei is brief for kei-jidōsha, a Japanese time period that interprets to “mild car.” Japanese regulators restrict kei vehicles, vans, and vans in engine dimension and output in addition to exterior dimensions—size, width, and top—though the utmost values for every have modified over time. As a result of these tiny autos weren’t offered new in the US, they will solely be introduced into the nation underneath the 25-year import rule, which permits autos with non-compliant security and emissions tools to be given a go in the event that they’re over a quarter-century outdated. In style examples embrace the Honda Acty pickup and van, the Suzuki Cappuccino, and the Autozam AZ-1.

The brand new regulation comes with some stipulations. Kei autos can’t be pushed on roads with pace limits above 55 mph. That is wise, since these low-powered autos have hassle sustaining excessive speeds on flat floor, not to mention at altitude going up a grade on I-70.

The regulation additionally clarifies how emissions testing will work for kei autos; as a substitute of being subjected to a dynamometer take a look at, the state’s emissions company will use a static two-speed idle take a look at, which is in any other case used on vehicles from model year 1981 and prior.

The regulation additionally explicitly acknowledges keis as motor autos for the needs of the Uniform Motor Automobile Legislation and the Certificates of Title Act. The invoice had bipartisan co-sponsorship in each state homes. There are nonetheless some points that may bridge the widening aisles of our legislatures.

From Quasi-Authorized to Formally Official

Colorado has had an on-again, off-again relationship with kei legality lately. Till now, there have been no kei-specific rules on the books. A rule proposed by the state’s Division of Motor Automobiles in 2024 would have put an outright ban on them and will have prevented registration of different “non-traditional” car sorts; it was rescinded, with the DMV arguing that it was pointless, as kei autos have been already unlawful in its view.

This rule was backed by lobbyists from a bunch referred to as the American Affiliation of Motor Automobile Directors and would have deferred to AAMVA steerage when deciding which autos the state would permit to be registered. The AAMVA can also be behind proposed kei bans in different states, together with Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

AAMVA’s argument is that kei autos are supposed for off-road use solely. It additionally seems to conflate kei autos with mini-trucks, a few of that are supposed just for off-road use. However not all keis are vans, and even the little JDM pickups are authorized for on-road use of their homeland.

For many who have tried to register keis within the state, the principle sticking level was emissions testing, which is required in certain counties, most of them within the Entrance Vary, the place a lot of the state’s residents (and their emitting autos) are situated. Sadly, some would-be kei drivers realized of this too late; it was potential to get a brief plate for a kei car, however with out passing the emissions examination, these homeowners could not get their mini vehicle registered. Tales of palm-greasing and doubtful registration ways abound on Reddit. In counties that do not require emissions testing as a part of the car registration course of, this was a non-issue.

The place Keis are Okay

Colorado joins 29 different states which have legal guidelines permitting kei autos on public roads. They’re: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Like Colorado, some locales prohibit which roads kei autos can use primarily based on pace restrict, with a handful stored to roads with 25-mph-or-lower maxes. Even the place keis are deemed authorized, there could also be extra hurdles to clear for registration or restrictions positioned on their highway use, which might range by jurisdiction, so you should definitely do your homework earlier than urgent “Purchase It Now” on that public sale. In New Hampshire, for instance, a kei car can solely journey inside a 25-mile radius of its proprietor’s residence and solely on roads with a pace restrict of 35 mph or much less.

A number of states—Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and West Virginia—have restrictions in place, a lot of them particular to kei vans, which can be restricted to farm or agricultural use. New York requires compliance with all relevant Federal Motor Automobile Security Requirements and emissions necessities, which requires costly retrofit work and is subsequently prohibitive, particularly since many keis might be purchased and imported for a number of thousand {dollars}. Rhode Island is already beginning to clamp down on kei registrations whereas laws is pending.

The states of Alaska, Delaware, and Hawaii, in addition to Washington, D.C., don’t have any legal guidelines regarding kei autos. After which there are the states the place kei registration is explicitly prohibited: Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont.

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