Wisconsin names kei vehicles in statute and refuses ordinary registration. Collector plates are the one route — but they cost twice the normal fee, require a second registered vehicle, and are void every January.
Virginia’s DMV requires a low-speed vehicle to be manufactured to 49 CFR 571.500, certified by the manufacturer. A kei truck cannot be. HB 219 would create a proper class — copied almost verbatim from Colorado.
Every guide says Utah allows kei trucks on roads posted at 50 mph or less. Utah’s own ATV definitions require low-pressure tyres and rollover protection, which a kei truck does not have. Here is what I could and could not verify.
Oregon’s DMV will not title a kei truck, and points to an ATV route that a 2023 amendment appears to have closed. The bill that died twice defined a kei truck at 11 feet — shorter than the trucks it was meant to legalise.
Colorado passed the most carefully drafted kei vehicle law in the United States — 140 inches, a minimum speed instead of a cap, and a ban on declaring these trucks unroadworthy by design. Registration opens January 1, 2028.
Ohio’s mini-truck definition requires that the vehicle was not built to federal safety standards — it was written for imported kei trucks. Then it leaves road use to your local authority, capped at 35 mph.
Nebraska’s minitruck statute has no length limit, allows 1,500cc and 67 inches of width, and says “foreign-manufactured import vehicle” in its own text. All roads but interstates, expressways and freeways.
Indiana registers kei trucks for every public road except interstates, with no speed cap and no length limit. The constraint is a 1,600 lb weight cap that sits in the middle of what these trucks actually weigh.
Some states define a kei truck at 130 inches long — the Japanese standard replaced in October 1998. Every kei truck built since measures 133.7. Three state templates compared against manufacturer figures.
Massachusetts resumed registering kei vehicles on September 18, 2024 — and said in the same advisory that it is still studying them. The bill that would make it permanent carries a length limit most importable trucks exceed.