When the Toyota S-FR concept appeared in 2015, it measured 3,990 mm long. To qualify as a kei car, it would need to lose at least 590 mm, nearly two feet of metal. That is exactly what the latest rumor out of Japan suggests.
Japanese outlet Response reports that Toyota and Daihatsu could launch a pair of tiny sports models built to kei regulations. One would be a Daihatsu roadster, and the other a Toyota coupe carrying the spirit of the S-FR.
Nothing is confirmed. Toyota has said nothing on the record.
This differs from what Best Car reported earlier. That story put a future S-FR on the production version of the Daihatsu Vision Copen, sized to take on the Mazda MX-5. Response has taken the same idea and shrunk it.
The hardware trail is real, even if the Toyota badge isn’t yet. Daihatsu showed the K-Open concept in 2025, and most observers read it as a preview of the next Copen. The second-generation Copen ended production earlier this year.
That leaves a hole in Daihatsu’s lineup and a platform in development. Daihatsu is wholly owned by Toyota. Sharing a small roadster’s bones with a coupe sibling would spread development costs across two badges, and Toyota has never ignored that kind of math.
The rules of the class are strict. Kei cars are capped at 3,400 mm in length, 660 cc of displacement and 63 hp.
That sounds thin on paper, but it has never stopped the segment from producing cars people still talk about decades later. The Honda Beat and S660, the Suzuki Cappuccino, the Autozam AZ-1 and the Copen itself all worked inside that box and found real joy there.
The detail that has enthusiasts paying attention is the drive layout. The new Daihatsu architecture is said to send power to the rear wheels. A manual gearbox has been mentioned as a possibility, not a promise.
That would be a big change. The outgoing Copen was front-wheel drive. A rear-drive kei car with three pedals is a rare thing in any showroom today, in Japan or anywhere else.
The S-FR has a strange history. Toyota showed it at the Tokyo Motor Show eleven years ago as an entry-level sports car slotted below the GT86, with styling that nodded to the 1960s Sports 800. Then it went quiet.
Eleven years is a long time for a concept to gather dust. A production version at its original size never happened. Response now claims it might come back smaller than anyone expected.
Toyota’s GR division has its hands full. The Celica revival is confirmed, and an MR2 return remains a rumor that refuses to die. A kei coupe would sit well below both, a car built for Japanese roads, Japanese tax brackets and Japanese parking rules.
The timing points to 2027, the earliest window for the Copen successor previewed by the K-Open. If a Toyota sibling exists, it would likely show up alongside it.
For now, the evidence amounts to a Daihatsu concept, a discontinued roadster, a decade-old Toyota show car and two Japanese magazines that can’t agree on the size.
Toyota still hasn’t said a word.
Share this Story