Toyota brings back Scion with a 25 mph kei truck built in Indiana

Toyota is launching Scion by Toyota, a new take on a brand it retired in 2016. The old Scion sold small cars to young buyers. The new one is described as an experimental mobility incubator, which is a fancy way of saying a place to try new ideas.

Toyota calls it a "freedom lab." It showed three vehicles at the launch:

• KEI-01: a practical mini truck, the only one with a production date.
• SxS: an off-road concept with a turbocharged hybrid engine and more than 300 horsepower. It first appeared at the 2025 SEMA Show.
• BKE: a compact personal mobility concept that sits between practical and high-performance.

"The future of mobility will not be defined by one vehicle, one technology or one way of thinking," said Simon Humphries, Toyota's chief branding officer and head of design. Scion by Toyota, he said, gives the company a place to "challenge conventional thinking."

"Kei" is a Japanese vehicle class. The rules keep the vehicle small on purpose. A kei car can be at most about 11.2 feet long, 4.9 feet wide and 6.6 feet tall. The engine can be no bigger than 0.66 liters, and it can make no more than 63 horsepower.

For comparison, a full-size pickup in the US is more than 16 feet long. A kei truck is about two thirds of that length and a lot narrower.

The rules make sense where parking is scarce. In Japan you need a place to park before you can buy a car. Last year, Japan bought almost 1.7 million kei vehicles out of about 4.6 million total sales.

In real life Think of a kei truck as a garden wheelbarrow that grew a roof, heating and four wheels. It carries your stuff and fits where a pickup cannot.

Toyota's numbers are modest, and that is the point. Here is the spec sheet:

• Size: just over 11 feet long and under 5 feet wide, roughly half the footprint of a full-size pickup.
• Engine: a 660cc three-cylinder gas engine with a continuously variable transmission, an automatic with no fixed gears.
• Drive: selectable four-wheel drive with an automatic mode and a push-button lock.
• Speed: 25 mph at most.
• Cargo: a bed with three sides that fold flat, carrying up to 600 pounds, and it can tow small trailers.
• Cabin: fully enclosed, with heating, air conditioning, a raised roofline, reclining and sliding seats, and storage behind them.

The steering wheel is on the right side, as in the Japanese trucks that inspired it. Toyota says that helps with curbside deliveries, because the driver can step straight onto the sidewalk.

By the numbers: 660cc, 25 mph, 600 pounds. A small engine, a low speed limit and a bed meant for soil, tools and gear.

The KEI-01 is certified as a low-speed vehicle. That is a US federal category for small vehicles that stay at or below 25 mph, the same group that includes golf carts. These vehicles are already street-legal in parts of the US, and they are common in places like retirement communities and campuses.

The category is what lets a Japanese-style truck be sold in the US without redesigning it around crash and highway rules for faster cars. The trade-off is clear. It is built for surface streets, farm tracks, campus paths and worksites. It is not meant for roads with fast traffic.

Toyota will assemble the truck at its plant in Princeton, Indiana. It is investing $34 million there and expects to add about 50 jobs. The truck will arrive at the plant as knock-down kits, which are parts shipped in boxes and put together locally.

Production starts in the second half of 2027. Sales begin as a low-volume pilot aimed at fleets. Toyota names these groups:

• Small businesses: urban owners who need a small work vehicle.
• Farmers and ranchers: narrow barn aisles and garden gates are no problem.
• Campuses: municipalities, universities and corporate sites.
• Delivery and service firms: especially in crowded city streets.
• Outdoor fans and hobbyists.

The trucks will go through Scion by Toyota dealers, picked from Toyota's existing dealer network. Toyota says it may open retail sales later, depending on demand and market conditions.

Americans already want these trucks. More than 30,000 used kei trucks have been imported into the US since 2020, roughly 7,500 a year. Used Japanese imports have typically cost about $6,000 to $12,000.

Importing one can be harder in some states than others. A new truck built and sold through a Toyota dealer would skip that headache for fleet buyers.

Kei vehicles also drew attention in Washington. President Trump said last year that he wanted the Department of Transportation to allow production of these small vehicles in the US. Toyota's announcement is the first from a big carmaker in that direction.

The big picture: Large vehicles have dominated US roads for years, in part because of fuel economy rules that made small cars less profitable to build. A kei truck is the opposite approach, a vehicle limited by size and power from the start.

Nobody knows yet. Toyota has not published a price or any trim options. Guesses range widely, from as little as $10,000 to as much as $28,000.

The catch: Ordinary shoppers cannot walk into a dealer and buy one at launch. The pilot is for fleets, so a regular buyer would have to wait for Toyota to open retail sales, which it has only said it may consider.

The old Scion was a Toyota sub-brand aimed at younger buyers, known for a haggle-free way of selling cars. Toyota ended it in 2016 to focus on selling more Toyotas.

The revived name has a different job. Toyota says it sees Scion as a testing ground for utility, outdoor adventure and customization that would not normally fit into its other models. A tiny work truck is a good example: it would be an odd fit next to the Camry, but it makes sense as an experiment.

Toyota's description of the brand includes a line that sums up the plan: "Scion by Toyota is not a finish line, it is an invitation to prototype your freedom." Toyota also says it directly employs about 48,000 people in the US across 11 manufacturing plants, so a pilot like this starts from a large base.

Toyota has shared the broad facts, but several details are still open:

• Price: no number and no trim options yet.
• Volume: Toyota calls the pilot "low-volume" without giving a count.
• Dealers: the list of Scion by Toyota dealers has not been published.
• Retail: Toyota says only that it may consider it later.

Toyota also shared a website, scionbytoyota.com, for the brand.

• If you run a farm or a campus: a small, enclosed truck with a heater and four-wheel drive is coming, but only through a fleet pilot at first.
• If you want one for yourself: expect to wait. Retail sales are not promised, and there is no price.
• If you drive on busy roads: this is not for you. At 25 mph it is made for surface streets and private land.
• If you follow Toyota: Scion by Toyota will likely bring more odd, small ideas, starting with this one.