Japanese legacy automaker Isuzu has decided to penetrate the battery-electric pickup truck segment with a new model arriving in 2025.
This upcoming electric pickup will mark the company’s first electric vehicle production model in the passenger sector.
What’s currently known about the e-pickup?
Isuzu took the opportunity to announce the imminent arrival of its new electric pickup during the unveiling event of the revamped D-Max truck in Bangkok, Thailand.
“Isuzu is actively taking efforts to realize a carbon-neutral society. Going forward, Isuzu plans to produce a BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) pickup truck in Thailand.”
Isuzu President Shinsuke Minami
Despite undergoing production in the Asian country, Isuzu plans to initially launch the model in Europe.
“Isuzu will first introduce it in Europe and then examine its gradual roll out by meeting the needs of each market, including Thailand.”
Isuzu President Shinsuke Minami
Unfortunately, the automaker has yet to reveal more specific details about the model.
However, Electrek suggests that the model may be an electric counterpart of the D-Max, like what it did to the T90 EV. It further indicated that the size of the mystery model might be more comparable to the Ford Maverick instead of a full-size body like the Ford F-150 Lightning or Rivian R1T.
Competition
Potential competitors of Isuzu’s new e-pickup in the Thai market include Geely’s Radar R6.
Radar is acknowledged as “China’s first pure electric outdoor lifestyle brand.” It recently imported its first batch of e-trucks to the Thai market in July.
The R6 rides on the SEA platform. It has three battery configurations that can enable a driving range of up to 392 miles (632 km). Moreover, it has an attractive price of RMB 178,800 ($24,500) in China.
Apart from the Radar R6, Japanese automaker Toyota also debuted the Hilux pickup’s EV variant in Thailand in December 2022.
Thai EV market
Thailand continues to report increasing electric vehicle registrations. In fact, it dominated the Southeast Asian market with a 79% share of the overall EV sales so far.
The Thai Government set a target of having EVs account for 30% of its 2.5 million vehicle production per year.
It is also worth noting that Thailand is currently the Japanese brand’s top pickup truck market. According to the report, Isuzu’s pickup truck sales in the country reached approximately 180,000 units in 2022. It represented 45% of the company’s overall pickup sales of about 340,000 units globally.
Isuzu will launch the new e-pickup truck in Europe as early as 2025, Nikkei Asia reported. It will be unsurprising if the mystery model actually turns out to be the D-Max, given that it contributes 40% of the company’s global sales.
