Toyota won minds and melted hearts at the 2023 Japan Mobility Show with a compact concept van and mini-adventurer it called the Kayoibako, going so far as to show what it would look like as a light camper. The modular x-mover was as functional as it was adorable ... in a concept van way, at least. Two years later, the Japan Mobility Show is back, and so is the Kayoibako. This time around, Toyota is talking up an entire family of vans, including a newborn baby: the Daihatsu Kayoibako-K, a flexible kei transporter that works as an urban delivery solution, micro-camper, small family hauler, self-driving adventure shuttle and mobile storefront.
The Kayoibako name was derived from Japanese shipping containers that rely upon modular interiors to properly fit and secure different types of cargo. The 2023 show van was developed to demonstrate how that type of swappable interior concept could be adapted to a van, making a single vehicle platform far more versatile by way of interchangeable interiors.
Released under Toyota Group's Daihatsu badge, the Kayoibako-K shrinks the general concept down even more, this time to kei car size. That means the diminutive van measures in at a hair under 340 cm (134 in) long, roughly 59 cm (23 in) shorter than the original 2023 Toyota Kayoibako. Most of Daihatsu's materials show it as a single-seat mini-delivery van, but the company says it's capable of housing up to four seats.
Like the original Kayoibako, the Kayoibako-K is aimed first and foremost at businesses and workers, designed to dedicate its voluminous rear cabin to delivering packages, carrying tools of a trade, working as a mobile storefront, or perhaps transporting passengers as an urban ride share vehicle. Also like the original Toyota concept, it's being served with a heavy side of recreation, and Daihatsu's multimedia materials show it carrying kayaks to the river, serving as a two-person micro-camper with rooftop tent, and enjoying time at the beach.
Enhancing the K's ability to efficiently move people through their greater surroundings and operate as an adventure dream machine is its autonomous driving capabilities. While not fully autonomous in all situations, the Kayoibako-K concept is imagined with the ability to navigate itself to the doorstep to meet its driver, return itself to the parking lot or garage, and self-drive a specific route.
That last capability allows the Kayoibako-K to serve as the ultimate adventure companion by dropping off kayakers at the put-in and then driving itself to the takeout to pick them up after they're done, something for which one would usually rely on a friend and/or separate pre-parked return vehicle. Beyond just kayaking, this could be game-changing for activities like downhill mountain biking and point-to-point hiking.
Jeep showed a similar idea a few years ago when diving into the future of high-tech design.
The Kayoibako-K is the smallest van model in an envisioned five-vehicle Kayoibako transporter fleet that would include models ranging from small to extra large. Toyota imagines the smallest vehicles being offered under the Daihatsu brand, with the larger ones wearing a Toyota badge.
Toyota itself revealed the new HiAce Concept at the large end of the concept van lineup. The van shares its shape and design language with the smaller Kayoibako vans, but its production model-based name suggests that Toyota is exploring the idea of making the Kayoibako lineup a potential replacement for the current generation HiAce vans, bringing new levels of flexibility to its van line.
So one day in the not-so-distant future, we could be seeing a modular, multi-use Toyota van platform readied to compete with Kia's steadily developing PBV range.
The video below shows how the Kayoibako-K could fit into an ultramodern vision of work/life balance.
Source: Toyota
