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Kei car, known variously outside Japan as Japanese city car, ultramini, or Japanese microcar, is the Japanese vehicle category for the smallest highway-legal passenger cars. Similar Japanese categories exist for microvans, and kei trucks. These vehicles are most often the Japanese equivalent of the EU A-segment.
The Mazda Porter and Porter Cab are a series of small kei trucks that were produced from 1961 to 1989 by Mazda, mainly for sale in the domestic Japanese market. Export versions of the Porter were labelled E360. The Porter was replaced by the Autozam Scrum, a rebadged Suzuki Carry.
After an early flirtation with V-twin engines, Mazda's small cars of the 1960s were powered by OHV straight-2 and straight-4 engines. This family lasted from 1961 until the mid-1970s. Today, Mazda's keicars use Suzuki engines. It was produced at the Hiroshima Plant in Hiroshima, Japan.
The Daihatsu Fellow Max is a small Japanese automobile in the Kei car class. Originally introduced as the Daihatsu Fellow, the name was partially retained for the Max Cuore (1977) and then again for the 2000 Daihatsu Max.
The Mitsubishi Pajero Mini is a kei car produced by Mitsubishi Motors from December 1994 until June 2012.
The Mitsubishi Orion or 4G1 engine is a series of inline-four internal combustion engines introduced by Mitsubishi Motors in around 1977, along with the Astron, Sirius, and Saturn. It was first introduced in the Colt and Colt-derived models in 1978. Displacement ranges from 1.2 to 1.6 L.
The Mitsubishi Minica is a kei car produced by Mitsubishi Motors (MMC) mainly for the Japanese domestic market from 1962 to 2011. It was first built by Shin Mitsubishi Heavy-Industries, one of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' three regional automotive companies until they were merged in 1964, and as such predates MMC itself. In Japan, it was sold at a specific retail chain called Galant Shop. In 2011, the car was replaced with the Mitsubishi eK.
The Suzuki Fronte is an automobile that was first introduced in March 1962 as a sedan version of the Suzulight Van. The nameplate remained in use for Suzuki's Kei car sedans as well as some other commercial-use vehicles until it was replaced by the Alto name in September 1988. The word "fronte" means "forehead" or "front" alluding to the fact that the car is front-wheel-drive.
The Honda N360 is a small front-engine, front-wheel drive, two-door, four-passenger car manufactured and marketed by Honda from March 1967 through 1970 in Japan's highly regulated kei class — as both a two-door sedan and three-door wagon.
The Mitsubishi 3G8 engine is a range of three-cylinder powerplant from Mitsubishi Motors, introduced in the fifth generation of their Mitsubishi Minica kei car. In common with other contemporary engines in the class, it could be specified with many advanced technologies despite its diminutive size, including multi-valve cylinder heads and double overhead camshafts. The top-of-the-line Dangan ZZ variant was also the first kei car to benefit from turbocharging. In 1987 Mitsubishi was the first manufacturer to supercharge a kei vehicle, and in 1989 became the world's first production car to feature five valves per cylinder, ahead of similar developments by Bugatti, Audi, Ferrari and Toyota.
The Mitsubishi Vulcan engine, identified by the code 2G2, is an iron-block twin cylinder engine with three main bearings, built by Mitsubishi Motors for kei car class vehicles from September 1972. It was an overhead camshaft design, and superseded the older two-stroke 2G1 series. The 2G2 was in turn replaced by the Multi-valve 3G8 three-cylinder series.
The Mitsubishi 4A3 engine is a range of alloy-headed inline four-cylinder engines from Mitsubishi Motors, introduced in 1993 in the sixth generation of their Mitsubishi Minica kei car. It shares a 72 mm (2.8 in) bore pitch with the 3G8-series three-cylinder engines, but has a considerably shorter stroke so as to stay beneath the 660 cc limit imposed by the Kei class.
The Mitsubishi Neptune or 4G4 engine is a series of iron-block OHV inline-four engines built by Mitsubishi Motors from 1971 to 1979, alongside the Orion, Saturn, Astron, and Sirius. This was to be Mitsubishi's last OHV engine. The inability to clear new passenger car emissions rules for 1978 meant that the Neptunes were replaced by the 4G1 Orion. The Neptune continued to be built until 1979 for commercial vehicles, which suffered less restrictive environmental regulations.
The Mitsubishi Minicab is a kei truck and microvan built and sold in Japan by Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors since 1966. In Japan, it was sold at a specific retail chain called Galant Shop. An all-electric model of the Minicab, called the Minicab MiEV, is sold in the Japanese market since December 2011. It was also sold by China Motor Corporation (CMC) in Taiwan as the CMC Verica, starting in 1985. Since February 2014, the Mitsubishi Minicab is a rebadged Suzuki Carry andor Every.
The Mitsubishi Toppo is a light recreational vehicle (RV) produced by Mitsubishi Motors from 1990 until 2004 and then from 2008 until 2013. The original version was derived from their Minica kei car. The name is a portmanteau of the English "top" (roof) and the Japanese "noppo" (lanky).
The Mitsubishi Colt 800 is the first of a series of passenger cars with a fastback/hatchback design produced by Mitsubishi Motors from November 1965. It was introduced as a two-door fastback sedan, the first such design in the Japanese market. The series was discontinued in 1971, after the introduction of the company's Galant sedan but without a real replacement.
The ME21/24 engine was Shin Mitsubishi Heavy-Industries' replacement for the 309 cc single-cylinder overhead valve ME20 engine. Unlike its predecessor, this was a two-stroke, a concept to which Mitsubishi was to prove faithful for its smallest engines until the 1972 introduction of the Vulcan 2G21.
LC10 was the original name given to a series of very small three-cylinder, two-stroke engines built by Suzuki Motor Corporation in the 1960s and 1970s. They were used in a number of kei class automobiles and light trucks. The LC10 and its derivatives did not completely replace the FE and L50 two-cylinders, which continued to be used mainly for light commercials. The LC10 engine was developed together with the Suzuki B100 engine, a 8–11 PS (5.9–8.1 kW) 118.9 cc (7.26 cu in) single-cylinder motorcycle engine which shared the same bore and stroke. For longevity and convenience, the LC10 received Suzuki's new "Posi-Force" auto-lubrication system, eliminating the need for pre-mixed fuel.
The automotive industry in Japan is one of the most prominent and largest industries in the world. Japan has been in the top three of the countries with most cars manufactured since the 1960s, surpassing Germany. The automotive industry in Japan rapidly increased from the 1970s to the 1990s and in the 1980s and 1990s, overtook the U.S. as the production leader with up to 13 million cars per year manufactured and significant exports. After massive ramp-up by China in the 2000s and fluctuating U.S. output, Japan is currently the third largest automotive producer in the world with an annual production of 9.9 million automobiles in 2012. Japanese investments helped grow the auto industry in many countries throughout the last few decades.
The Suzuki FB engine is a series of two- and three-cylinder two-stroke engines that was produced by the Suzuki Motor Corporation from October 1961 until November 1987. They were used in a number of Kei-class automobiles and light trucks. From the original air-cooled 359 cc (21.9 cu in) straight-twin version the FB series developed through a number of different models having different names, ending with the water-cooled, three-cylinder LJ50. The names used for various versions of this engine often refer to the chassis code of the cars in which they were introduced, until Suzuki changed their engine naming system sometime in the first half of the 1970s.
References
- ↑ 360cc: Nippon 軽自動車 Memorial 1950-1975: p69, 2007. ISBN 4861440831
- 1 2 3 2G10 engine-equipped Mitsubishi Minica 70 (1969) Archived 2006-03-23 at the Wayback Machine , Mitsubishi Motors Web Museum
- ↑ 自動車ガイドブック: Japanese motor vehicles guide book (in Japanese). Japan: Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. 20: 180. 1973-10-30.Missing or empty
|title=(help) - ↑ Automobile Guide Book 1973/1974 , p. 206