ISUZU - background & news

Isuzu is a Japanese car, commercial vehicle and heavy truck manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo.

In 2005, it became the world's largest manufacturer of medium to heavy duty trucks. The company has assembly and manufacturing plants in the Japanese city of Fujisawa and in the prefectures Tochigi and Hokkaido.

Isuzu is famous for producing commercial vehicles and diesel engines. It produced 16 million diesel engines in 2003 alone, which can be found in vehicles all over the world.

In most of Asia, Africa, and Europe, Isuzu is mostly known for trucks of all sizes.

The popularity was gained as a result of Isuzu small automobile sales having plummeted drastically forcing Isuzu to drop all sales of saloons and compact cars in the late 1990s. In the US, Isuzu has ceased selling passenger vehicles.

Isuzu, as a corporation, has primarily been a manufacturer of small to medium compact automobiles and commercial trucks of medium and larger sizes, but has moulded its business approach to suit market requirements worldwide.

For example, it has a contract with Budget Truck Rental to manufacture their rental trucks.

This contract is also shared with Ford, GMC, and Navistar International. On November 7, 2006, Toyota acquired 5.9 per cent of Isuzu, making it the third largest shareholder.

On January 30, 2008, Isuzu Motors America announced that it would discontinue the sale of passenger vehicles in the US effective January 31, 2009.

The company explained to its dealers that it had not been able to secure replacements for the Isuzu Ascender and Isuzu i-Series that would be commercially viable. Isuzu sold 7,098 cars in the year 2007.

The Isuzu range is limited to only one model for the public, the pickup Rodeo.