This was the first thing my brain jumped to: "It would be a hell of a lot easier to comply with NHTSA regulations if you didn't have a combustion engine."

At that point, the issue is safety and crumple zones, which, again, should be vastly easier when you don't need an engine.

What if part of the appeal of kei trucks is the price? I think the niche these vehicles are filling for some is that they're small _and_ cheap. Maybe a fully street legal version can't match kei truck pricing, but $50k also isn't it.

Think it has same problem of you-die-on-any-crash at least looking at where driver is.

We just need someone to attach a small tipper truck bed to a Yaris...