About Isuzu
Isuzu is one of the oldest names in Japanese motoring, and for most of the world it means one thing: a diesel that keeps running long after it should have given up. Founded in the early twentieth century, it built cars, trucks and buses for decades, and Americans of a certain age still remember the Trooper SUV and the quirky Impulse coupe. Those days are gone; Isuzu stopped selling passenger vehicles in the United States around 2009 to concentrate on commercial vehicles.
That focus paid off. Isuzu's low-cab-forward trucks, sold as the Elf in Japan and the N-Series in North America, are the delivery trucks, landscapers' haulers and box vans of cities worldwide, prized for tight turning circles and a reputation for durability. In Britain the Grafter fills the same role. The D-Max pickup, built largely in Thailand, carries the brand's name across Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. They are the trucks nobody notices until they need one.
Isuzu has grown in heavy trucks too, buying UD Trucks from the Volvo Group in 2021, and it works with Toyota and Honda on electrified and hydrogen commercial vehicles. Battery-electric versions of its light trucks and of the D-Max have reached customers in several markets, while diesel remains the backbone. The headlines here follow new trucks and pickups, fleet orders, exports, plant deals, partnerships, recalls and the company's push into cleaner power.