Shiotsu Autotrade Japan – President’s Blog

Isuzu Trucks to raise stakes in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and China

Isuzu Motors, the largest manufacturer of light and medium duty trucks from Japan, plans to increase its stakes in joint ventures with auto makers  in Thailand, China, Indonesia and Malaysia, as per its plan to increase sales revenue and profit in the booming South-east Asian markets.

As per a recent statement by Susumu Hosoi, president of Isuzu Motors, Isuzu plans to take stakes of more than 50% in joint ventures in Thailand, Malaysia, China, and  Indonesia by the end of first quarter of 2012.  Isuzu aims to control these  operations, by raising stakes to more than 50%.

Isuzu’s main focus will be on Thailand, which is Isuzu’s largest market in South-east Asia.  Isuzu plans to improve the vehicle sales from 750,000 units in the year 2010 to 800,000 units in 2011.  At present, more than 50% of Isuzu’s global light and medium duty truck sales come from Thailand, which accounts for 28% of its operating profit.  Thus, raising the stakes in joint ventures in this region will help Isuzu to achieve more profitability.

Isuzu had earlier expected a shift of demand from light duty trucks to environment-friendly passenger cars in Thailand as Thailand’s ‘eco car project’ offers tax incentives to car makers as well as buyers of cars that deliver at least 20 km/liter.  However, there are many rural areas in Thailand where the demand for light trucks is not affected by the Government incentives.  So, Isuzu expects a steady growth in the truck market of Thailand.  Looking at the increasing demand for trucks in Thailand, Isuzu aims to raise the production capacity in this region by about 20% in next two years.  Isuzu expects the sales to go up by about 34% by the end of this fiscal year.

Isuzu currently has  50% stake in an engine manufacturing venture in China and  6.7% stake in its Thailand based truck venture.  It also has a 20% stake  in a  truck venture in Malaysia and 44.94% share in a truck unit in Indonesia.

The Japanese truck maker is planning to increase production capacity in China to manufacture about 100,000 units of trucks and SUVs by 2012, from its current capacity of 65,000 units.

If you are located in Malaysia, Thailand, or Indonesia and wish to import used Isuzu trucks, please get in touch with us stating your requirements.  We will find the best used Isuzu trucks to suit your requirents.

Technorati Tags: Isuzu, medium duty trucks, light duty trucks, Japanese truck, used Isuzu trucks

Hino plans to make light duty Hybrid Trucks

Hino Motors Ltd is developing a new hybrid system for light-duty trucks and is currently carrying out field tests with some of its bigger users.  Sagawa Express Co Ltd, Ito En Ltd, Seino Transportation Co Ltd, Japan Post Service Co Ltd, Sohgo Security Services Co Ltd and Yamato Transport Co Ltd are participating in the field test for testing Hino light duty hybrid trucks.  Hino plans to calculate the hybrid system’s fuel consumption on the basis of actual usages and make use of this information for improving the fuel efficiency.  Hino aims to commercialize this new system for hybrid pickup trucks next year.

This new hybrid system by Hino has efficient power electronics and an improved control system.  Hino’s new hybrid system has a clutch between its motor and engine which offers an all-electric drive mode for the truck.  With this system truck uses the electric motor and as it does not run the engine which helps to collect regenerative electric power when a truck slows down.  In the internal testing done by Hino, it was found that about 50% fuel can be saved with use of this system, when compared to a diesel truck of similar capacity.  Hino will evaluate the reduction in fuel consumption of the real world parameters and optimize this system before commercializing the system in 2011.

Apart from improving fuel economy, Hino reduced the weights and sizes of the major components of the hybrid system.  It uses a nickel-metal-hydride rechargeable battery pack which was used in Toyota’s hybrid sedan-Lexus GS450h.

Hino Motors also made some changes in the engine and transmission of this hybrid system like drive in the ‘power’, ‘normal’ and ‘eco’ modes, lamp which indicates the “eco” driving position, allows stopping engine idle position in the D range etc.

Toyota has dominated the modern hybrid vehicle industry for last few years, however so far its focus was mainly the car and SUV segment.  Two mode hybrid systems were used successfully for several years by GM and Chrysler for their SUVs and full-sized trucks.; however, theV8-based hybrid systems developed by Chrysler, GM, BMW and Daimler capable of powering large light-duty trucks, have many flaws.  Toyota, therefore wants to capture this sensitive hybrid light duty truck market.

Hino, the Toyota Group company deals with buses and medium- duty as well as heavy-duty trucks.   Hino also manufactures vehicles with Toyota badge on commission which includes Dyna trucks, the Land Cruiser Prado SUV, the FJ Cruiserand Toyoace commercial vehicles.  Toyota plans to target the market for hybrid pickups by developing this new hybrid system. If this new drivetrain by Hino proves successful for light duty trucks what Toyota hybrid sytems did for cars, things could become interesting!

Nissan Mitsubishi Mini Car Tie-up for Japanese Market

Nissan and Mitsubishi have recently announced that they would boost ties by expanding their seven year old partnership for manufacturing new mini cars for Japanese market and commercial vehicles for overseas market.  Both the car makers hope this cooperation to further strengthen their mutual competitiveness around the world, particularly in the global commercial vehicle markets such as the Middle East and emerging Asia, and Japanese domestic mini car market.

Both the Companies have entered into Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) accords agreements and provided each other with models which they have promoted with each other’s brand names in home country.  As per that agreement Nissan will provide Mitsubishi for domestic market with a light wagon/van while Mitsubishi will provide Nissan with SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) for Nissan’s SUV Middle East market.  Further discussions are still going on regarding supply of upper-end segment model supply to Mitsubishi by Nissan for its domestic market.

As per the tie-up, Nissan will sell SUV’s under their badge manufactured by Mitsubishi in the Middle East and also outsource newly manufactured pick-up truck Navarra (Frontier) to Mitsubishi’s factory in Thailand.  The Japanese auto makers are also contemplating to cooperate in producing a new generation one-ton pickup truck and to design sub-compact models for the Japanese domestic market.

Mitsubishi and Nissan had had already entered into a cooperation agreement for the production of commercial vehicles in Japan.  Both the carmakers announced that this collaboration will balance their existing global partnership.  This partnership agreement is part of new trend among worldwide automakers toward collaboration, which helps to lower the costs by sharing parts and platforms.  Nissan-Renault has such cooperation agreements with Ashok Leyland in India, Avtovaz in Russia and Dongfeng in China whereas Mitsubishi has it with Peugeot Citroën of France.

Nissan sells three models of mini-vehicle manufactured by Mitsubishi in Japan. Mini vehicles are popular due to their low price tag and also for the lighter requirement of taxes and insurance premiums.

As per the President and CEO of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn , this OEM agreement is essential for the company as it will support their expansion in domestic markets and will also help to meet immediate capacity needs of their overseas market. Such new agreement will enable the Japanese auto maker to grow our business of mini car in Japan.  Osamu Masuko, Mitsubishi’s president is of the same opinion and says that this agreement will balance regional characteristics of both the companies and even their product array.  He further says that mini car and one-ton pickup projects will strengthen each others’ competitiveness.

In Japan, many of the national banks merged to remain competitive and profitable and now we are witnessing a new trend in with the Japanese automobile manufacturers too.  This tie-up between Nissan and Mitsubishi,  is an indication of how the Japanese auto industry is evolving to ensure sustainable long term growth and success.