diff --git a/news/13165.feature.rst b/news/13165.feature.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e21ddac50ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/13165.feature.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Speed up small CLI tools by removing ``import re`` from the executable template.
diff --git a/src/pip/_internal/operations/install/wheel.py b/src/pip/_internal/operations/install/wheel.py
index aef42aa9eef..0e94cb80678 100644
--- a/src/pip/_internal/operations/install/wheel.py
+++ b/src/pip/_internal/operations/install/wheel.py
@@ -412,6 +412,16 @@ def _raise_for_invalid_entrypoint(specification: str) -> None:
 
 
 class PipScriptMaker(ScriptMaker):
+    # Override distlib's default script template with one that
+    # doesn't import `re` module, allowing scripts to load faster.
+    script_template = r"""import sys
+from %(module)s import %(import_name)s
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    if sys.argv[0].endswith('.exe'):
+        sys.argv[0] = sys.argv[0][:-4]
+    sys.exit(%(func)s())
+"""
+
     def make(
         self, specification: str, options: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None
     ) -> List[str]: