It’s easy to dismiss kei cars as weak, un-serious shoeboxes for misers. However, there’s a good reason why they comprise more than 34 percent of car sales in Japan. Even if you take the registration, parking and tax benefits out of the equation and judge a kei car purely on fuel consumption, they are incredible feats of engineering. To see just efficient they are, a couple of vloggers in Japan see how far they can get a single tank of gasoline.
British YouTuber Chris Broad, who has been living in Japan for many years, vlogs about Japan on his Abroad in Japan channel. Automotive content isn’t his usual bag, but in his latest video he goes all Top Gear and purchases Nissan Moco to test how far a typical kei car can drive without refueling. With the help of his frequent collaborator Natsuki to share driving duties, Chris starts out in the town of Sakata in Yamagata Prefecture and points the pastel blue microcar westward.
The car in question is a third-generation Nissan Moco, built from 2011-16. However, under the badge it’s actually an MR Wagon built by Suzuki. The used Moco costs only $1000,yet has only 76,500km (47,535 miles) on the odometer. Like all kei cars, displacement is limited to 660cc and 63 horsepower. The Moco weighs between 790 and 880 (1740 to 1940 lb) kg depending on trim and is only offered with a CVT.
Like that one Seinfeld episode, Chris and Natsuki really go for it across several prefectures, and the beautiful scenery from the coastal towns of Japan are just icing on the cake. With a 27-liter (7.13 gallon) fuel tank, a fill-up at the start costs only ¥5151. How far can they get on approximately $35 USD? We won’t spoil it, but the result is far more than either of them predicted at the outset.
All we can say is, it’s damn impressive when a vehicle can make a Toyota Aqua, their camera car, look like a gas guzzler. Known as the Prius C in the US, the hybrid gets an estimated 48 city/43 highway mpg on US testing cycles and was one of the most efficient cars for sale in America when it came out. Not only that, but the Moco has one gimpy tire that doesn’t hold air and neither are hard-core car guys, so they could have probably eked out a few more kilometers if they truly feather-footed it.
The result shows why kei cars are so successful and how Suzuki, which has a primarily kei lineup, ranks as Japan’s fourth largest carmaker — above Subaru, Mazda, and Mitsubishi. The video is entertaining as it is informative, and makes us wish kei cars were more accessible here in the US.
I’m not so sure if the S-Cargo is a Kei Car, probably not but, it almost the size. Anyway, the van’s biggest drawback is that while it rather miserly on gas to a point, this is defeated by it being styled like a brICK AND HAVING A 7 GALLON TANK!
When I lived in Japan I quickly learned how pessimistic the fuel gauge on my Alto Works was. My record for a tank was about 450km, from near Lake Biwa, through Nagano, and finally to a highway rest stop east of Joetsu in Niigata Prefecture. The needle was well off the scale below “E”
I am sure the Moco was infinitely more fun to drive than the Prius C. I had to drive one from Fresno to Seattle. It was so gutless, it made me swear off Prius’s… until the new 2023 came out. It turned out to be one of the best automotive purchases I’ve ever made.
I calculated 61 mpg based on distance traveled. If they had a manual trans., they probably would have been able to coast in neutral on downgrades to save more gas. I learned to coast as much as possible after driving a hybrid Civic and trying not to use the gas engine when possible. Kei car pick-up trucks and vans are starting to show up a lot in Hawaii. I wouldn’t mind owning one.
61MPG (as calculated by another poster) doesn’t seem impressive at all.
2000 – 2006 Honda Insight has entered the chat.