Daihatsu will end production of the current Copen at the end of August. The company confirmed the timing in a release last September and its Japanese product page now carries the same notice, adding that sales continue only until dealer stock is gone and that the production end date could still move.
That will close a run that began in June 2014 for the second-generation car, and once the remaining inventory clears, Japan will be left without a new kei convertible on sale. Honda's S660 finished in March 2022 and nothing replaced it.
Daihatsu has not shut the door on the nameplate. Its own English release says production of the current model ends in August 2026, "however, Daihatsu is continuing various research to bring the COPEN back to the market." That is not a confirmed successor. It is not a denial either. The company is also running a nationwide thank-you event program that started in April 2026.
What is on the price list at the end
The Copen leaves in three design families — Robe, Cero and GR Sport, with additional S variants offered on Robe and Cero — all using the electrically operated Active Top folding hardtop and a choice of five-speed manual or seven-speed Super Active Shift CVT. Base prices for each family:
| Line | From |
|---|---|
| Copen Robe | ¥1,983,300 |
| Copen Cero | ¥2,040,500 |
| Copen GR Sport | ¥2,501,400 |
All of them share the same kei-class hardware: a 658 cc turbocharged three-cylinder rated at 64 PS — the long-standing voluntary ceiling Japanese kei manufacturers observe rather than a figure written into the regulations — driving the front wheels. GR Sport sits at the top of the range.
Two things made the Copen unusual. Daihatsu describes the original 2002 car's Active Top as the first electrically operated open/close roof fitted to a kei vehicle. And the second-generation car introduced what Daihatsu calls the D-Frame structure, with resin outer panels designed to be removed so owners could change the car's appearance without touching its underlying structure — a factory answer to the body-kit instinct, rather than an aftermarket one.
When it becomes an import prospect
For readers outside Japan, the honest answer is: not yet, in either generation.
The US 25-year exemption runs from each individual car's date of manufacture, not from a model year — which is the same rule this site's import calendar is built on. The first-generation L880K went on sale in June 2002, so the earliest examples begin reaching the 25-year mark around mid-2027, and later cars follow one build month at a time. The LA400K ending production this month starts qualifying in 2039, again individually rather than all at once.
So this is a supply story before it is an import story. Japan is about to stop building the only new kei convertible it has, and the used stock of both generations is now finite in a way it was not last month.
Daihatsu has not published an order cut-off date. The official notice says only that sales end once dealer inventory runs out.