Toyota-Owned Daihatsu Unveils Commercial Evs for Deliveries to Homes, Businesses

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:19 JST, February 2, 2026

Daihatsu Motor Co. started selling two new commercial electric vehicles on Monday. The e-Hijet Cargo and the more premium e-Atrai, both kei lightweight models, are Daihatsu’s first mass-produced commercial EVs.

The vehicles will also be provided to Toyota Motor Corp. and Suzuki Motor Corp. under original equipment manufacturing arrangements.

The models were developed based on the gasoline-powered Hijiet Cargo, another kei commercial vehicle. They are equipped with an EV system, including batteries and a power supply unit, that was jointly developed by the three automakers.

The driving range for a single charge is 257 kilometers, one of the farthest ranges for a commercial kei vehicle. The new models have the same volume of cargo space and the same maximum load of 350 kilograms as the conventional Hijet.

The e-Hijet Cargo retails at ¥3.15 million and the e-Atrai at ¥3.47 million. Daihatsu aims to sell 300 of the cars in total each month. It expects them mainly to be used for delivering goods to homes and businesses.

“We have created a vehicle that combines the user-friendly features of the current Hijet model with the charm of an electric vehicle,” Daihatsu President Masahiro Inoue said at a press conference on Monday in Tokyo.

Daihatsu had planned to introduce commercial kei EVs in fiscal 2023, but the plan was postponed due to a scandal surfacing in December 2023 that involved falsification of safety test results.

In 2024, Honda Motor Co. introduced its own commercial kei EV, the N-Van e:. Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. are also selling commercial kei EVs.