KG Motors Aims to Launch Japan's Electric Vehicle Market with Mibot

Key Highlights

• KG Motors' $7,000 single-seat EV, Mibot, secures over 2,250 pre-orders, challenging Toyota's dominance. 
• Mibot's compact design and affordability aim to transform Japan's EV landscape, especially in rural areas.

In the rural suburbs of Hiroshima, a Japanese startup is attempting to jumpstart the country's electric vehicle market with the smallest, cheapest car it can build.

KG Motors has created a battery-powered one-seater that looks more like a futuristic golf cart than a modern EV, let alone a traditional car. Nonetheless, well over half of the 3,300 units it plans to deliver by 2027 have already been pre-sold to customers.

That puts it on track to sell more EVs in Japan than the world's largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corp., which sold approximately 2,000 such vehicles in 2024. In a country where electric vehicles are still rare, KG Motors is attempting to dispel a growing myth: that bigger is better.

"Cars are simply too big," founder and CEO Kazunari Kusunoki stated. "Seeing so many big cars traveling Japan's narrow streets - that's where this all began for me."

At less than 1.5 meters in height, KG Motors' mibot has a range of 100 kilometers (62 miles), a charging time of five hours, and a top speed of 60 kilometers per hour. KG Motors' new factory east of the city will begin production in October at a cost of ¥1 million ($7,000) before taxes. That's roughly half the price of Nissan Motor Co.'s Sakura, Japan's most popular electric vehicle.

To date, both domestic and foreign automakers have struggled to gain traction for EVs in Japan.

According to BloombergNEF, the cars accounted for approximately 140,000 units, or 3.5% of total vehicle sales in 2023, a far cry from the global average of 18%. For example, Chinese behemoth BYD Co. sold 2,223 vehicles in Japan in 2024, a fraction of the 4.3 million it delivered globally.

KG Motors' mibot, however, stands out with its single-seat design. The first 300 should be delivered to customers in Hiroshima and Tokyo by the middle of next year, with the remaining 3,000 shipped nationwide, according to Kusunoki.

KG Motors expects to lose money on the first batch but break even on the second. Following that, the company aims to produce approximately 10,000 units per year. It is in the process of obtaining the vehicle safety certification required to commercialize the MiBot.

The startup's size and make-to-order strategy may work in its favor. EVs use far fewer parts than conventional gasoline or hybrid vehicles, but the mibot takes it a step further, consisting primarily of a battery, motor, and sparse electronics connected by wiring housed within a monocoque chassis on four wheels, resulting in low production costs.

Even KG Motors' marketing draws on Kusunoki's previous work as a YouTube content creator.

The company has posted video on its website of the mibot being tested on icy roads in Hokkaido, squeezing between homes packed into Hiroshima's historic districts, and smashing into concrete walls at high speeds to ensure it meets Japan's stringent safety regulations.

Kusunoki, 43, grew up in Higashihiroshima, a suburban town with streets that are sometimes too narrow for a Japanese sedan. He founded KG Motors in June 2022. He witnessed the country's public transportation infrastructure deteriorate as a taxi driver shortage was exacerbated by an aging, shrinking population.

As young people move to big cities, it becomes more difficult for the elderly to get around.

As a result, KG Motors anticipates demand for one- or two-seater compact, cost-effective vehicles. As of early May, the company had received 2,250 orders, with more than 95% coming from homeowners with at least one vehicle.

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"In rural parts of the country, public transportation systems are in shambles," he said. "This might be hard for someone living in Tokyo to understand but at some point, it becomes necessary to have one car per person, not just per household."