Isuzu Motors' history began in 1916, when Tokyo
Ishikawajima Shipbuilding and Engineering Co., Ltd. planned a cooperation with the Tokyo Gas and Electric Industrial Company to build automobiles. The next step was taken in 1918, when a technical cooperation with
Wolseley Motors Limited was initiated, yielding exclusive rights to the production and sales of Wolseley vehicles in East Asia from
knock-down kits. In 1919 came the first ever Japan-produced passenger car, a Wolseley model, the Fifteen A9 15/40 НР at the Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipyard at the
Fukagawa Factory. The Wolseley sourced CP
truck followed two years later; 550 of these were built by 1927. In 1923 Japan was devastated by the
Kanto earthquake which made the fledgling transportation infrastructure that was heavily reliant on government-owned
railroads unusable due to the twisted tracks. Heavy construction vehicles were imported from the United States companies
GMC and
Ford to aid in recovery and reconstruction, and the company sought to contribute by producing locally built construction and heavy duty vehicles. In 1927 the company introduced its 2-ton load capacity "Sumida P-type truck" equipped with an A6 engine and a 1-ton vehicle "Sumida M-type No. 1 bus" equipped with an A4 engine. The name "sumida" was used from the
Sumida River as the factory at Fukagawa was close by. In 1929
IHI Corporation, separated part of its manufacturing business and merged with DAT Automobile Manufacturing Inc. (a predecessor of
Nissan) and changed its name to Jidosha Kogyo Co., Ltd. (
Automobile Industries Co., Ltd.) The names used for the products of this company, marketed as "Sumida" and "Chiyoda", have
special significance in Japan.
Chiyoda is a district in Tokyo where the
Imperial Palace is located, and
Sumida refers to a river that flows through
Tokyo approximately east of the Imperial Palace. In 1949, the company was renamed
Isuzu after the
Isuzu River, following a meeting with the Japanese Government's
Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI).
Etymology The word Isuzu translated into English means "fifty bells"—hence the focus on "bell" in both the later
Bellel and the
Bellett. The name was used from the
Isuzu River that flows near to the
Ise Grand Shrine, one of Japan's most sacred and revered shrines.
Post World War history Truck and bus production of the
TX40 and TU60 series and the
Isuzu Sumida bus resumed in 1945, with the permission of the
occupation authorities. and has remained the primary focus of manufacture for the company, along with
diesel engine production. In 1958 a factory was built at
Fujisawa, Kanagawa, and in 1959 the
Isuzu Elf was introduced as a medium duty
cab over commercial truck which is still in production, and was also shared with the
Isuzu Journey bus. Isuzu continued to maintain its market presence by providing commercial vehicles by introducing the
Isuzu TY in 1966. The company is one of the primary manufacturers of commercial duty trucks and buses for public transportation, to include the
Isuzu Cubic,
Isuzu Gala and the
Isuzu Erga along with the
Isuzu Giga.
Corporate partnerships Beginning in 1953 the
Hillman Minx passenger car is produced under license of
Rootes Group giving the company a passenger car to compete with other Japanese manufacturers, realizing that their resources were limited and therefore sought out international partnerships. The Minx remained in production until 1962, after the 1961 introduction of Isuzu's first passenger car, the
Bellel, The
Subaru 1000 was even shown in Isuzu's 1967 annual vehicle brochure, as a suitable complement to the larger Isuzu lineup. This tie-up was over by 1968, when an agreement with
Mitsubishi was formed. This ended even more quickly, by 1969, and the next year an equally short-lived collaboration was entered with
Nissan. A few months later, in September 1971, what was to prove a more durable capital agreement was signed with
General Motors. This would see GM own Isuzu for the next 35 years.
Linking with General Motors While the company had a long relationship with GM going back to the 1920s, the first investment of GM taking a 34% stake in Isuzu was seen in 1972, when the
Chevrolet LUV became the first Isuzu-built vehicle to be sold in the United States. To symbolize the new beginning, Isuzu also developed a new logo for 1974, with two vertical pillars as stylized representations of (), the first
kana in (). Isuzu exports also increased considerably as a result of being able to use GM networks, from 0.7% of production in 1973 to 35.2% by 1976; this while overall production increased more than fourfold in the same period. A three-way agreement of co-ownership was signed in August 1981, with Isuzu and Suzuki exchanging shares and General Motors taking a 5% share of Suzuki. and Subaru small commercial vehicles as Isuzus (
Geminett,
Geminett II). This OEM tie-up occurred alongside the establishment of SIA (Subaru-Isuzu Automotive), an American joint venture with
Fuji Heavy Industries (the parent company of
Subaru). Shortly afterwards, the
Lafayette, Indiana plant became operational.
Contraction begins , a two-wheel-drive utility vehicle Isuzu ended US sales of the
Impulse (
Geo Storm) in 1992, and the following year it stopped exporting the
Stylus (the basis for the Geo Spectrum), the last Isuzu-built car sold in the US. In 1993 Isuzu began a new vehicle exchange program with
Honda, whereby Honda sold the
Isuzu Rodeo and
Isuzu Trooper as the
Honda Passport and
Acura SLX, respectively. In return Isuzu began selling the
Honda Odyssey as the Isuzu Oasis. Thus, Honda's lineup gained two SUVs, and Isuzu's lineup gained a minivan. In the Japanese market, the Gemini (Stylus) was now a rebadged
Honda Domani and the Aska (originally based on the GM
J-car) was a
Honda Accord, while Honda received the 2-door
MU as the Jazz and the 4-door Trooper as the Horizon. Isuzu's United States sales reached a peak in 1996 after the introduction of the
Isuzu Hombre pickup, a badge-engineered GM truck (using the sheetmetal of the Brazil-market Chevrolet S10). Isuzu resurrected the Amigo in 1998, before changing the name of the 2-door convertible to Rodeo Sport in 2001 in an attempt to associate it with the better selling 4-door Rodeo. The new
Axiom launched in 2001, with the fictional salesman
Joe Isuzu from 1980s advertising campaigns brought back to promote it. Isuzu sales began to slide due to the aging of the
Rodeo and
Trooper, and poor management and a lack of assistance from GM. The Rodeo Sport was discontinued in 2003, while production of the Rodeo and Axiom ceased a year later. By this point sales in North America had slowed to just 27,188, with the discontinued Rodeo and Axiom making up 71% of that total. In 1998 GM and Isuzu formed
DMAX, a joint venture to produce
diesel engines. GM raised its stake in Isuzu to 49% the following year, effectively gaining control of the company, and quickly followed this up by appointing an American GM executive to head Isuzu's North American Operations. This marked the first time a non-Japanese executive had held such a high position at Isuzu. In 2001 GM and Isuzu announced plans to share distribution networks and for Chevrolet to market an Isuzu product. GM had been pushing the company to focus exclusively on producing commercial vehicles and engines. by paying 50 billion yen (about US$425 million). GM also paid 10 billion yen (about US$85 million) for a 12% stake in the recapitalized company. Production of the 7-passenger Ascender ended in February 2006 with the closure of GM's
Oklahoma City Assembly plant, leaving Isuzu with the 5-passenger Ascender, built in
Moraine, Ohio and the low-selling i-Series as its only retail products. The company sold just 1,504 vehicles in North America in the first two months of 2006. GM ended its equity investment in Isuzu and sold all its shares to
Mitsubishi Corporation,
Itochu and
Mizuho Corporate Bank; both GM and Isuzu claimed the companies would continue their relationship, but there was no word as of April 12, 2006 on the effect this would have on DMAX operations. motorway with the CNG-MPI Engine In June 2006 Isuzu and GM agreed to establish a joint venture called "LCV Platform Engineering Corporation (LPEC)" to develop a new pickup. Isuzu said it would use its engineering expertise to develop the pickup and GM would develop derivatives based on the integrated platform. Mitsubishi Corp became Isuzu's largest shareholder in October 2006, after it converted all the preferred shares in Isuzu it had held since 2005 into common stock, increasing its shareholding from 3.5% to 15.65%. In November 2006
Toyota purchased a 5.9% shareholding in Isuzu, becoming the third largest shareholder behind
Itochu and
Mitsubishi Corporation. The two companies agreed to study possible business collaboration focusing on the areas of R&D and production of diesel engines, related emissions-control, and other environmental technologies. In January 2007 Isuzu and General Motors updated the LCV range with a 3.0 litre common rail diesel engine that had far more torque and power than its predecessor. In August 2007 Isuzu and Toyota agreed to develop a 1.6-liter diesel engine for use in Toyota vehicles sold in European markets. At this point, details of development, production and supply of the diesel engine were still under discussion, but in principle, Isuzu would play the leading role, with production scheduled to begin around 2012. On 30 January 2008, Isuzu announced its complete withdrawal from the US market, effective 31 January 2009. It would continue to provide support and parts. The decision was due to lack of sales. Some of the lack of sales was blamed on consumer experiences with low quality engines and service. Isuzu had been experiencing a slow decline since the late 1990s. In less than 10 years, they had gone from selling a complete line of cars, trucks, and SUVs, into being a specialized SUV maker, and finally selling only a pair of rebadged, General Motors Trucks. The company continued to sell commercial vehicles in the US. Isuzu and Toyota shelved development of a clean diesel engine in December 2008. On 29 January 2009, Isuzu and GM announced that they were in talks to transfer the operation of the medium-duty truck production line in
Flint, Michigan to Isuzu for a five-year period. In June, however, GM announced that these talks failed to reach an agreement, and GM instead ceased production of the
Chevrolet Kodiak and GMC Topkick vehicles on 31 July 2009. In July 2016, Isuzu and Mazda agreed to collaborate to produce the next-generation pickup trucks for Mazda outside of North America. As a result, the third-generation Mazda BT-50 is built by Isuzu in
Thailand since 2020. Isuzu's plant in the Indian state of
Andhra Pradesh began operations in 2016. In August 2018, Toyota sold off its 5.9% stake in Isuzu. In December 2019, Isuzu announced that it had signed a non-binding
memorandum of understanding which would eventually see
Volvo sell
UD Trucks to them. In November 2020, the companies announced that they have signed the "final agreements", making the memorandum of understanding binding. In April 2021, Isuzu completed UD Trucks acquisition. In March 2021, Isuzu, Hino, and Hino's parent Toyota announced the creation of a strategic partnership between the three companies. Toyota acquired a 4.6% stake in Isuzu while the latter plans to acquire Toyota shares for an equivalent value. The three companies said they would form a new joint venture by April called Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies Corporation with the aim of developing
fuel cell and
electric light trucks. Toyota would own an 80% stake in the venture while Hino and Isuzu would own 10% each. == Leadership ==