Trump says he approved the making of Japanese 'tiny cars' to be sold in the US

[progree]

14. "Building Kei trucks in the U.S. would also require alterations to federal motor vehicle safety standards"

from the OP's article, repeating the link for convenience of reference:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-japanese-tiny-cars-kei-b2879150.html

The administration’s plans would make it easier for major U.S. manufacturers to continue selling gas-powered vehicles and disincentivize the production of electric vehicles.

So this is the motive? I don't get how this makes sense ... this would also result in less costly EV's too ... though I guess it would help U.S. car manufacturers meet the fleet average mpg standards without building more EVs or building fewer EVs (mpg standards were recently reduced from 50.4 to 34.5 mpg by 2031 https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143576525 . But why didn't he go ahead and reduce them to like 10 mpg or get rid of them entirely? So that he wouldn't have to push the building of little beep beeps)

Building Kei trucks in the U.S. would also require alterations to federal motor vehicle safety standards.

Features such as minimum front-end width requirements or the distance across a seat cushion, as well as hood angle and sturdiness of a crumple zone in a crash, means that many of the vehicles would currently not be compliant, according to Road and Track ( https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a69632858/trumps-kei-car-plan-regulatory-changes/ ).

"Kei cars can't be sold in the U.S. because they aren't designed for this market and don't meet various safety standards,” a spokesperson for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety told the outlet.

. . . The Independent has contacted the White House for comment on potential changes to federal safety standards to allow Kei trucks to be built.