Elon Musk will be in charge of the federal budget next year, from which he’s promised to cut a truly impossible amount of money. But you don’t find $2 trillion just by cutting your entire staff so nothing works except your burned-out employees — you need to take more drastic measures, like cutting the things that cost real money: Regulations. Also Social Security and Medicare.
Auto regulations are a costly enterprise to maintain, and one that Musk has already butted heads with. He can get well on his way to that $2 trillion number just by gutting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which would leave American automaking in a very odd place: No foreign competition, and no rules on what to make. Should that future come to pass, what cars should American automakers start building?
With no safety regulations, there’s no reason to keep cars the way they are with high beltlines, thick pillars and airbags. Regulations are written in blood, and their removal allows companies to bring all that blood back. With both the ability and the financial incentive to make things less safe, there’s a clear path for domestic automakers: Build kei trucks.
No rules for safety, plenty of demand for functional vehicles, the cost savings on metal alone would give the Big Three reason to spin up new factories. In a world without automotive regulations, where anything goes, kei trucks are the way forward. Even better, electric kei trucks.
That’s my take for the future of regulation-free American motoring, but what’s yours? Leave your picks for the best post-regulation American cars in the comments, and we’ll sort through our favorites later in the week. Bonus points for articulating something that I can sketch really, really badly.