Josh wrote: ↑Tue Jun 27, 2023 2:26 pm
Because the latter trucks don't meet U.S. crash safety and emissions standards. No politician is going to win by arguing "We need American vehicles to be less safe and to pollute more".
That is actually not true. Europe, Japan, and the US have different crash safety and emissions standards but they are arguably NOT lower. Far more people die on American highways than in Europe or Japan and crashes that do happen tend to be more deadly. Especially crashes involving pedestrians.
This is due, in part, to the excessive height and weight of many American vehicles. And the fact that the US lacks things like bumper height standards. And as for emissions standards? Both Europe and Japan have HIGHER emissions standards compared to the US, ESPECIALLY for light trucks.
The two main reasons why the American truck market is dominated by large American trucks are:
1. The "Chicken Tax" first imposed by the Johnson Administration that imposes a 25% import duty on light trucks but not cars:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
2. CAFE fuel efficiency standards adopted in 1975 and updated many times since have always subjected pickups to lower fuel efficiency standards despite the fact that the vast majority of them are used for nothing more than ordinary commuting and not work. In addition, pickups were exempted from the gas guzzler taxes that were imposed on large sedans that were fuel inefficient.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_truck
These two REGULATORY measures basically incentivized American car manufacturers to double-down on large trucks and SUVs for the past 40 years and have insulated them from competition from most small foreign-made trucks. The existing truck market is the way it is due to government intervention not consumer choice.
The reason you can buy a small Japanese-made Toyota Prius or Corolla but not a Japanese-made Toyota Pixis are mostly regulatory. And not consumer choice, safety standards, or emissions standards.
