Toyota is bringing Scion back to the US… with a 25mph kei truck

Scion is back! Sort of! After it was originally killed off in 2016, ‘Toyota for millennials’ is making a triumphant return, and this time it’ll be selling… a right-hand drive kei truck with a top speed of 25mph. Wait, what?

No, seriously. This is the KEI-01, and it’s essentially a rebadged version of the Toyota Pixis Truck sold in Japan, which itself is a rebadged Daihatsu Hijet Truck that was first introduced back in 2014. It gets even weirder.

The KEI-01 will actually be built in the US, with a $34m investment adding around 50 new jobs at Toyota’s Indiana plant in the second half of 2027. And yet, it’ll remain right-hand drive only and – despite its proven 660cc three-cylinder engine, CVT gearbox and four-wheel drive – will comply with FMVSS No. 500 requirements for Low Speed Vehicles, meaning it’ll be road legal but limited to just 25mph. And yet the speedo still reads up to 140kph (87mph). Right.

The dinky little thing will stick to kei regs in terms of size though, so it remains just 3.4m long and 1.48m wide. And yet it can carry 272kg of stuff in its fold-down bed, and is even able to tow “small trailers and equipment”.

Initial sales will be fleet only “to help the company learn how it can best serve US customers and use cases", we’re told. And the brand itself will now officially be known as ‘Scion by Toyota’. It describes the KEI-01 as “an intentionally low-volume, niche vehicle”.

It’s not just the bizarre little truck that the New Sciontists are hoping to shift, because at the brand relaunch it also showed off the SxS Concept – a 300bhp+ hybrid side-by-side first shown at the 2025 SEMA Show – and the BKE Concept, which looks very much like the reborn Honda Motocompo.

“The future of mobility will not be defined by one vehicle, one technology or one way of thinking,” said Toyota’s big boss of design, Simon Humphries.

“Scion by Toyota gives us a place to challenge conventional thinking, explore new possibilities and create mobility in new ways. The KEI-01, SxS and BKE concepts each represent a different possibility—and together, they show what can happen when curiosity leads the way.”

Anyone else still mighty confused? Still, if this props open the door for kei cars and trucks to be sold worldwide, we’re all for it.