Things have been a bit tense in Japan. The automotive giant Nissan has seen better days, Chinese competition in the industry has never been more intense, and Toyota Chairman even highlighted the necessity for Japan to get back to the forefront of the automotive world, during his speech for the launch of the Century brand. Amidst all of this turbulence, it has been quite surprising to see BYD’s fulgurant rise in Japan, since it first launched its Atto 3 SUV model back in January 2023.
Many were sceptical when Chinese brand BYD entered the Japanese market. Would Japanese drivers switch from Japanese vehicles to Chinese ones and abandon their loyalty to local brands for an all-electric, foreign car brand? This transition seems to have been happening slowly, as the BYD booth at the Japan Mobility Show 2025 proves.
BYD unveiled the Racco at the Japan Mobility Show 2025, and it is BYD’s first model designed exclusively for overseas use. Racco is the Japanese word for “sea otter;” a fitting name for the tiny electric car. Tiny it is, as the Japan-exclusive Racco perfectly fits all kei car size requirements of 137×58×78 inches. Even its silhouette blends in with all other kei cars currently available in the Japanese market. The Racco’s silhouette is boxy, though edges are more rounded off. Rear passenger doors are sliding doors, which are pretty commonly found in various kei car models such as on the cute and colorful Daihatsu Canbus, or on the stylish Nissan Roox. The Racco will be fitted with a lithium iron phosphate battery on the floor of the car. With the position of the battery, we can expect the Racco to offer a pretty spacious interior that will be able to sit four. The kei car size limitations should also have influence on the battery size, and the Racco could be fitted with a battery of 20 kWh capable of offering about 112 miles of range. Though these numbers remain speculative, it would coincide with numbers from the Nissan Sakura kei car.
Overall, BYD disclosed very little information about the Racco and no interior is currently available, but things should be moving pretty quickly as the small electric car is scheduled to be introduced sometime in summer 2026.
The kei car segment has been a profitable avenue for Nissan, as the car brand developed hand in hand with Mitsubishi the first all-electric kei car, the Sakura. For a while, Nissan and Mitsubishi’s joint electric kei was the only kei offering in the EV market. Honda only recently entered the space by launching the N-One e, the all-electric counterpart of the popular N-One gasoline kei car, providing a third electric kei car option for Japanese customers.
With its kei car specifications (and a Japanese name), BYD is boldly announcing through its Racco concept that it’ll be entering what was once, until not so long ago, a Japan-only classification. Though the Racco is still in its concept stage, BYD was able to produce an exterior silhouette that looks quite close to a production ready car. The futuristic lights will likely have to go in order to comply with regulations, but the future Racco silhouette should remain overall quite faithful to the concept on display at the Japan Mobility Show. Though no price point has been disclosed, we can expect the BYD Racco to fall into a similar price range as the Sakura or the N-One e, with a starting price of around ¥2,600,000 (approx. $17,000), and a top trim price of around ¥3,200,000 (approx. $21,000).
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