CarBrandLogos archive · Daihatsu · 2003

DaihatsuTanto

The kei car that solved its own biggest problem by deleting a door pillar.

Photo: Tennen-Gas · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Daihatsu history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Daihatsu Tanto, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The Tanto belongs to a class that barely exists outside Japan: the tall kei wagon, built to the same 660 cc and 3.4-metre limits as any other kei car but with the roof pushed as high as practicality allows. The 2003 original established the formula, and it sold to families who needed to fit child seats, shopping and adults inside a footprint the length of a Fiat 500.

2008 Daihatsu Tanto Custom 01 · Hatsukari715 · Public domain

Design and engineering

Its defining feature came later: the Miracle Open Door, which eliminated the B-pillar on the passenger side so that the front door and the sliding rear door opened into one huge aperture. Loading a child or a wheelchair into a car this small became genuinely easy, and the idea was copied across the segment.

2008 Daihatsu Tanto Custom 02 · Hatsukari715 · Public domain

In production

It has been one of Japan's best-selling vehicles for much of its life, and remains in production — evidence that the kei class rewards packaging ingenuity far more than power.

2013-2019 Daihatsu Tanto · TTTNIS · CC0

At a glance