Isuzu’s electric vehicle initiative

Unfortunately, Covid-19 made our examination of this prototype very limited and the truck was returned to Japan without any press demonstrations being held.

There may be another reason why Isuzu wasn’t falling over itself to demo the ELF EV walk-through van to Aussie journos and I think it’s because this concept van has about as much chance of making it into production as did Hino’s walk-though van concept of 2005.

It’s no secret that Isuzu dragged the chain on introducing state-of-the-art dynamic and passive safety to its Australian models, catching up with the competition only this month, but Isuzu and Hino are still well behind Daimler-owned Fuso in introducing EV trucks to the global market.

Hino and Isuzu are in a new partnership with Toyota, to develop electric commercial vehicles. Suzuki and Daihatsu joined the Toyota-led alliance in August 2021, to accelerate the EV push in Japan.

When Daimler took over the Fuso brand in 2003, it made the Japanese subsidiary responsible for electrification developments and those millions of Euros didn’t go to waste. The eCanter has been available for sale to selected clients globally and in Australia for many months, while its Japanese competitors haven’t even introduced evaluation trucks Down Under yet.

The Isuzu light-duty trucks span the two to four tonnes payload range and the company has displayed prototype battery-electric vehicles at the three Tokyo Motor Shows since 2017.

Isuzu’s primary battery-electric evaluation trucks are ELF (N-Series) LDV bodied trucks, not the walk-through van that’s a one-off, Tokyo Motor Show concept vehicle. However, the in-cab features of the van, including the digital rear-vision mirror screens, are planned for production body trucks.

The Isuzu design has batteries arranged on either side of the chassis, with a centrally-located 150kW electric motor and transmission driving through a conventional mechanical axle. Since the first prototypes, battery energy density has improved from an original 180 Watt-hours per kilogram to 260Wh/kg, along with an 18 per cent price reduction.

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There are evaluation body trucks with customers in Japan and selected export markets are scheduled for battery-electric trucks in the near future. Unfortunately, Australia hasn’t been a high-priority country and for that we can probably thank our recalcitrant Commonwealth Government.

The Australian Government won’t even impose Euro Six emissions regulations on internal combustion engines before 2027, because that might discomfort the fossil fuel industry. A mandate about electric vehicles is obviously well outside its gambit.

In contrast, the European Union has proposed a virtual ban on the sale of small commercial vehicles with internal combustion engines, including hybrids, by 2035 and California requires a shift to zero-emission trucks by 2045. Japan unveiled a target in June 2021, for all trucks to be electric by 2040.

Despite Federal Government apathy, an Isuzu trucks Australia spokesperson told me that the company is anxious to have evaluation N Series battery-electric trucks here as soon as possible, because there’s pressure from enlightened fleet operators and state governments.

However, the supply of battery-electric trucks to Australia may be a relatively low-priority for Isuzu Japan, where the company is facing intense battery-electric truck competition from China.

One Chinese supplier has scheduled delivery in 2022 of more than 7000 battery-electric trucks to Japan’s Sagawa Express. They’re trucks that would have been Japanese in the pre-electric era.