Colorado Becomes the 30th State to Officially Allow Kei Cars

• Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed HB25-1281 into instrumentality today, officially allowing the state's residents to registry and thrust kei vehicles.

• Kei cars, a people of tiny four-wheel vehicles from Japan, tin beryllium brought into the U.S. nether the 25-year import rule.

• Until now, Colorado lacked kei-specific regulations, creating a spot of a grey country for owners.

Score different 1 for the small guys. Today, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed into instrumentality HB25-1281, which officially recognizes kei vehicles arsenic road-legal successful the authorities and puts successful spot the indispensable model for their titling, registration, and use.

For the uninitiated, kei is abbreviated for kei-jidōsha, a Japanese word that translates to "light vehicle." Japanese regulators bounds kei cars, trucks, and vans successful motor size and output arsenic good arsenic exterior dimensions—length, width, and height—although the maximum values for each person changed implicit the years. Because these tiny vehicles weren't sold caller successful the United States, they tin lone beryllium brought into the state nether the 25-year import rule, which allows vehicles with non-compliant information and emissions instrumentality to beryllium fixed a walk if they're implicit a quarter-century old. Popular examples see the Honda Acty pickup and van, the Suzuki Cappuccino, and the Autozam AZ-1.

The caller instrumentality comes with immoderate stipulations. Kei vehicles cannot beryllium driven connected roads with velocity limits supra 55 mph. This is sensible, since these low-powered vehicles person occupation maintaining precocious speeds connected level ground, fto unsocial astatine altitude going up a people connected I-70.

The instrumentality besides clarifies however emissions investigating volition enactment for kei vehicles; alternatively of being subjected to a dynamometer test, the state's emissions bureau volition usage a static two-speed idle test, which is different utilized connected vehicles from exemplary twelvemonth 1981 and prior.

The instrumentality besides explicitly recognizes keis arsenic centrifugal vehicles for the purposes of the Uniform Motor Vehicle Law and the Certificate of Title Act. The measure had bipartisan co-sponsorship successful some authorities houses. There are inactive immoderate issues that tin span the widening aisles of our legislatures.

From Quasi-Legal to Officially Official

Colorado has had an on-again, off-again narration with kei legality recently. Until now, determination person been nary kei-specific regulations connected the books. A rule proposed by the state's Division of Motor Vehicles successful 2024 would person enactment an outright prohibition connected them and could person prevented registration of different "non-traditional" conveyance types; it was rescinded, with the DMV arguing that it was unnecessary, arsenic kei vehicles were already amerciable successful its view.

This regularisation was backed by lobbyists from a radical called the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and would person deferred to AAMVA guidance erstwhile deciding which vehicles the authorities would let to beryllium registered. The AAMVA is besides down projected kei bans successful different states, including Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

AAMVA's statement is that kei vehicles are intended for off-road usage only. It besides appears to conflate kei vehicles with mini-trucks, immoderate of which are intended lone for off-road use. But not each keis are trucks, and adjacent the small JDM pickups are ineligible for on-road usage successful their homeland.

For those who person tried to registry keis successful the state, the main sticking constituent was emissions testing, which is required successful certain counties, astir of them successful the Front Range, wherever overmuch of the state's residents (and their emitting vehicles) are located. Unfortunately, immoderate would-be kei drivers learned of this excessively late; it was imaginable to get a impermanent sheet for a kei vehicle, but without passing the emissions exam, these owners couldn't get their mini automobile registered. Tales of palm-greasing and dubious registration tactics abound connected Reddit. In counties that don't necessitate emissions investigating arsenic portion of the conveyance registration process, this was a non-issue.

Where Keis are Okay

Colorado joins 29 different states that person laws allowing kei vehicles connected nationalist roads. They are: 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, immoderate locales restrict which roads kei vehicles tin usage based connected velocity limit, with a fistful kept to roads with 25-mph-or-lower maxes. Even wherever keis are deemed legal, determination whitethorn beryllium further hurdles to wide for registration oregon restrictions placed connected their roadworthy use, which tin alteration by jurisdiction, truthful beryllium definite to bash your homework earlier pressing "Buy It Now" connected that auction. In New Hampshire, for example, a kei conveyance tin lone question wrong a 25-mile radius of its owner's residence and lone connected roads with a velocity bounds of 35 mph oregon less.

Several states—Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and West Virginia—have restrictions successful place, galore of them circumstantial to kei trucks, which whitethorn beryllium constricted to workplace oregon cultivation use. New York requires compliance with each applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and emissions requirements, which requires costly retrofit enactment and is truthful prohibitive, particularly since galore keis tin beryllium bought and imported for respective 1000 dollars. Rhode Island is already starting to clamp down connected kei registrations portion authorities is pending.

The states of Alaska, Delaware, and Hawaii, arsenic good arsenic Washington, D.C., person nary laws concerning kei vehicles. And past determination are the states wherever kei registration is explicitly prohibited: Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont.

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