cars

The first few paragraphs. Emphasis mine.

In the rural suburbs of Hiroshima, a Japanese startup is trying to kick-start the nation’s electric vehicle market with the smallest, cheapest car it can possibly make. KG Motors has developed a battery-powered one-seater that more resembles a futuristic golf cart than it does a modern EV, much less a traditional car. And yet well over half of the 3,300 units it plans to deliver by March 2027 have already been pre-sold to customers.

Incidentally, that puts it on track to sell more EVs in Japan than the world’s biggest automaker, Toyota Motor, which shifted around such 2,000 vehicles in all of 2024. In a country where EVs are still a rare sight, KG Motors is trying to bust a burgeoning myth: that bigger is better. "Cars are simply too big,” founder and Chief Executive Officer Kazunari Kusunoki said. "Seeing so many big cars traveling Japan’s narrow streets — that’s where this all began for me.”

At under 1.5 meters in height, KG Motors’ Mibot has a range of 100 kilometers, a charging time of five hours and a top speed of 60 kilometers per hour. It will cost ¥1 million ($7,000) before tax when production starts in October at KG Motors’ new factory east of the city. That’s about half the price of Japan’s most popular EV, Nissan’s Sakura.

I wonder what he would think if he came to a typical American city and saw all the AMERICAN-SIZED monstrous SUVs and trucks.

The girls and the gays don't care about your 8,5L Turbo V12, they care about how your perfectly square headlights have their own iddy-bitty wipers. They also think your car looks like something coffins get transported in but whatever.

Yes this is a twin turbo RX-7 limo, and yes it is real. In fact it is currently on sale lol

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/4836183

(my helmet says "CCCP")

https://www.theautopian.com/you-know-you-really-want-to-use-your-eyebrows-to-stop-your-car/

The Nissan Sakura 2025 is the best-selling electric car in Japan—driver assistance, auto parking, fast charging, bidirectional power, and acres of charm. The killer stat: It only costs $17,000. [Wired article inside]

Nissan Sakura 2025 Review: Price, Availability, Specs | WIRED

Electric cars are not yet big in Japan, making up about 3 percent of sales. However, Japan’s government has announced plans to increase the percentage of EVs and PHEVs in passenger car sales to up to 30 percent by 2030. For now, the Sakura, despite its diminutive length of 3,395 mm (about 11 feet), happens to be Japan’s best-selling electric car.

[...]

Sadly, so far Nissan has shown no desire to sell the car outside Japan, although a few secondhand examples have ended up in right-hand drive markets such as New Zealand.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-suspends-taking-new-orders-model-s-model-x-chinese-website-2025-04-11/

Any other average miata/mx5/roadster enjoyers here?