MOVING N SERIES FORWARD

MOVING N SERIES

You don’t get to be such a dominant player in the truck market as Isuzu are without always progressing the product, it’s a process which never stops and this year the priority is moving N Series forward into a market with many changes on the horizon.

FORWARD

The last few years have seen the safety systems on trucks move from being an expensive luxury item on heavy duty trucks to a fitted necessity on all trucks, large or small. An arms race has developed between all of the major players to see who can include the highest number of three or four letter abbreviations in the specifications of new trucks.

Many of the brands leading this charge, to include everything from adaptive cruise control to lane keeping, are within large global truck making conglomerates like, Daimler, Volvo, Paccar or Traton, and Isuzu’s closest competitor, Hino, is part of the Toyota empire.

The situation for Isuzu, now led by newly arrived Takeo Shindo, Isuzu Managing Director and CEO, is not quite the same, it does not have access to the massive research and development dollars which are being ploughed into tech development and then distributed across a number of different brands globally. Instead, Isuzu has to be smart, leveraging the relationships it does have around the world to get access to the latest technology and integrate it into the trucks it is manufacturing.

This not to underestimate the strength of Isuzu, the global corporation does have considerable scale and some powerful allies and many long term relationships across the truck making industry. The company has been able to move swiftly over the past twenty years keeping ahead of the technology curve, and we can expect it to hold its own in, what looks like, a very fast moving technology leap in the next decade or so.

There are global projects in which Isuzu is involved, the collaboration with Honda to develop a fuel cell power unit for heavy duty trucks being one example. The deal with Volvo, in which Isuzu purchased UD Trucks, should also give Isuzu access to some of the latest electronic architecture developments. There is also a joint development project involving Isuzu, Toyota and Hino, although details are thin on the ground, as yet.

Another consequence of this development issue for Isuzu is the decision

This new N Series uses the same basic cabin design that Isuzu have been using since 2007.

to discontinue sales of the Giga model in Australia without a replacement available straight away. Clearly, the current Giga does look dated, when compared to its direct rivals from the other three Japanese truck makers. There is a replacement in the wings, according to Takeo Shindo, but as to when it will arrive, there is no definite date set, as yet.

These times of change have caused Isuzu to beef up its strategy team, under the leadership of Grant Cooper, Isuzu Chief of Strategy, to ensure the brand retains its progress to meet future demands from truck customers. Isuzu has appointed a new Innovation Manager, Alex Morris, and created a Business Intelligence Unit.

ELECTRIC DEVELOPMENT Currently in Australia, is an Isuzu concept ‘Walk-through Van’, developed by the company in Japan. This is part of Isuzu’s plan to develop carbon neutral trucks. Internal combustion engines (ICE) will continue to be developed, but only as a bridge technology to zero emissions by 2050.

By 2040, Isuzu expects to have a full carbon neutral range available to truck buyers around the world. This requires an acceleration in electric truck sales, starting in 2022 in some markets, but not in Australia quite yet.

“Isuzu Australia is laser-focussed on delivering an OEM electric platform, that builds on our core promise of ‘reliability is everything’,” says Grant Cooper, Chief of Strategy. “We will be leveraging off the strengths of our dealer network, advanced safety features and placing the customer at the centre of our approach.”

The fully electric concept truck is fitted with a battery with a density of 260 Watt hours/kg available today, but this is likely to rise year-on-year and the motor produces 150kW of power. The design has batteries mounted outside the chassis rails, removing the need for the engine cover in the middle of the cabin, and enabling a walk through design, where the driver simply stands up and walks through the rear of the cabin to the cargo area.

When looking at the trucks available to buy now, the big ticket included in the launch of the new N Series is the inclusion of an Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). This includes emergency collision avoidance braking, lane departure warning,

The star of the show for Isuvu has to be the Hitachi Stereo Camera System.

distance monitoring, which controls the adaptive cruise control, plus a feature we have not come across before, the Traffic Movement Warning system.

These systems rely on the Hitachi stereo camera system mounted just inside the centre of the wind-screen, on the top of the dash. The stereo system can detect speed and distance data about objects in front of the truck and send this data through to the safety systems controllers.

THE FINE DETAIL This new N Series uses the same basic cabin design that Isuzu have been using since 2007, but, according to Simon Humphries, Isuzu Chief Engineer, Product Strategy, it, ‘really is a drastically differ-ent product than that launched 2007’.

The original 2007 model has been refined year-on-year since that time and although the truck looks much the same as it did 14 years ago, under the hood and in the cabin there have been a series of upgrades, especially in exhaust emissions and electronic safety systems.

The new N Series for 2022 sees the model get a major upgrade in its electronic safety systems, needed to bring it up to par with its close Japanese rivals, Hino and Fuso, which have set the bar much higher in recent years.

The star of the show for Isuzu has to be the Hitachi Stereo Camera system mounted centrally inside the cabin and looking forward to the area in front of the truck. The system uses two lenses to give it a 3D image of the road ahead, with the ability to precisely measure distances and speed.

This camera makes four new safety systems possible. Firstly, there’s Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) and Forward Collision Warning. This will warn the driver of an impending collision and if the driver does not react, it will automatically bring in full emergency braking.

Next, it also enables Lane Departure Warning (LDW), another feature which is becoming more and more prevalent on all new trucks being released. Thirdly, the new N Series has something called a Distance Warning System (DWS), and this is joined by another feature, but one which is not becoming ubiquitous in new truck launches, called Traffic Movement Warning (TMW).

The stereo camera sits on top of the dash, low down in the middle of the windscreen. This is unlike many other truck systems, which are often at the top of the windscreen. Isuzu reckons the lower fitting gives the camera a better view of the road ahead. It is also effective in all lighting conditions.

When the truck gets too close to a vehicle in front, or a pedestrian walks across in front of the truck, the AEB is armed, there is an audible warning and then brakes are activated if the driver does not take any action. According to Simon, if the truck is running at 50 km/h or less, the system should avoid any impact. Collisions when the truck is going faster will be less severe as the truck will be travelling considerably slower at the point of impact.

Although the LDW is self explanatory, the TMW is something few will be familiar with. The system will warn the driver when the vehicle in front moves off at an intersection or in a queue. This will be useful to keep the more distracted drivers a little more alert, and probably automatically comes along with the full package of the other, more effective, features.

The DWS is something which will be more useful to both fleets and drivers. The driver can set the following distance they feel is safe in the driving conditions and will get a warning if the truck gets too close to the vehicle in front.

Of course this new set of abbreviations join another set which has appeared in the N Series before, like ESC, ASR, ABS, plus much more, to which we have become accustomed.

The new model also includes automatic lighting, where the lights are automatically activated if the sensor detects low-light conditions. This is something which Isuzu’s competitors in light duty do not offer, but it is not clear how much a non-safety system like this would influence truck buyers.

Simon Humphries, Isuzu Chief Engineer, Product Strategy.

Grant Cooper, Isuzu Chief of Strategy.

Surprisingly, the new suite of safety features does not include adaptive cruise control (ACC), even though the system can detect distance to the vehicle in front and bring the truck to a halt autonomously. This functionality will come to Isuzu, but not this time around.

“ACC is definitely in our product program,” says Simon. “We want to have it in the Australian market, because we tend to do higher speeds than in places like Japan, so it is better value for our market.”

In the Japanese light duty arms race, Isuzu has not decided to match, feature by feature, those offered in the direct competition. Instead, the company has gone through the shopping list available from Japan and come up with a good mix of items from the Isuzu arsenal.

Although the N Series gets the stereo camera, which also appears in models like the Isuzu Ute and MUX, the larger Isuzu trucks will be using a single camera and radar system, similar to that employed in most other brands, when the heavier models, like F Series, get upgraded to the next safety levels.

We can expect the next stage in the development, sometime down the track, to include the fruits of Isuzu’s relationship with the Volvo Group, which is part of its purchase of UD Trucks from Volvo. It will be at this point that the Japanese truck maker will have some leverage against the global development dollars of the big four global truck making groups, Traton, Paccar, Daimler and Volvo.

Other upgrades from the previous model are cosmetic, with new interior design tweaks. There are changes to the turn lamp cluster, a speed limiter option is now available and an increased towing capacity available across a selection of models.

Every new truck launch from Isuzu now comes with an extension of the ready to work range with updates and additions. One notable addition is the inclusion of an all wheel drive Tradepack.

The various ‘....Packs’ are becoming an increasing proportion of overall sales for the truck maker, around 50 per cent of N Series sales. There are now 35 different models on tap for customers looking for a turn-key solution, which they can buy and take away.

NOT A COMPLETE UPGRADE Although this launch is a significant one for Isuzu and the Australian truck market, major aspects of the truck specifications remain the same. The engine and transmissions fitted will continue from before, the same specs and the same ratings. The timing for a new engine offering is likely to be dependent on the long planned, but slow to appear, changes to emissions regulations coming through from federal government.

The significance of this latest release from Isuzu sees the market leader closing the technology gap with its fierce rivals. Fuso and Hino have already brought in a raft of the latest electronic safety systems and light duty trucks now come close to matching the most advanced heavy duty trucks available on the market.

Isuzu needs to keep its brand in the running, it has dominated the light duty for more than 30 years and plans to keep doing so. It certainly has made a significant upgrade in the level of sophisticated safety systems which come as part of the deal with the truck. The new N Series does tick many of the new technology boxes which buyers have been taught to ask for.

The new Isuzu models are close enough to the competition to be in the conversation with customers who require these extremely high levels of safety technology. The rest of the Isuzu organisation, with its comprehensive dealer network, professional sales and after sales teams and an impressive reputation, is likely to keep Isuzu in that number one slot, but the offerings from the competition may just close the gap on the leaders.

The lights are automatically activated if the sensor detects low-light conditions.

Other upgrades from the previous model are cosmetic, with new interior design tweaks.