The Brisbane Truck Show maybe seven months away but Isuzu has lifted the covers on its 2025 model line-up which is set to be launched at Australia’s biggest truck expo in May next year.
It is potentially the biggest model overhaul and launch in the history of the Isuzu brand in Australia, a brand that has ruled the Australian truck sales charts for the past 36 years.
As a clear and dominate force in the Australian market, commanding just under 30 per cent of the overall market, Isuzu is clearly keen to not rest on its laurels.
There was a time not that many years ago when Isuzu execs claimed that safety technology, that had found its way into opponents Fuso and Hino’s truck ranges, was not a high priority for its customers.
To some extent they were right, while it opponents made some small inroads into the dominant brands market shares, they were neither big not sustained.
Isuzu’s clearly loyal customer base, combined with its extremely strong dealer network and its brand reputation enabled it to maintain the advantage over its opponents.
But times and business climates change and now safety is the main hook Isuzu is hanging its new product range on.
Nonetheless, Isuzu has slowly and progressively added more safety tech into its trucks and the 2025 model line up, will by comparison, ‘bristle’ with safety features that will make piloting its machines much safer and potentially easier.
Partly driving the changes across the Isuzu range in Australia are the introduction of new mandatory Australian Design Rule (ADR) changes which have set standards for OEMs on all new vehicles sold here, including ADR 35/07, which mandates Electronic Stability Control (ESC) on all new heavy vehicles from 1 February, 2025, along with ADR 97/00, which mandates Advanced Emergency Braking (AEB) from the same date, and ADR 80/04, or the Australian equivalent to Euro 6, requiring new emission levels treatment all vehicles from 1st November next year.
As we said, 2025 marks a full change in the Isuzu line up from the light/medium N Series, through the F Series to the top of the tree and lately highly successful FX-FY heavy duty range of trucks.
The company last week hosted an Australia truck media briefing and drive day to sample its new modes. Unfortunately due to a medical issue T&B News was unable to attend, however we hope to get a crack at some of the trucks in the new range, sometime in the New Year.
Along with an expanded range of safety, the new gen Isuzu’s will also boast a range of new driver comfort and ergonomic improvements, built off an all new cabin structure which the company claims will give better interior space and enhanced appointments, but also a new exterior styling that will give the trucks a much stronger presence on the road.
Isuzu Australia’s chief of product, Matt Sakhaie, emphasised that part of the driving force behind the driver comfort and safety improvements in the new Isuzu range is the ongoing shortage of drivers which is driving a need to upgrade the cabin environment to make it more attractive for drivers.
Sakhaie said that Australia wasn’t alone when it comes to driver shortages.
“Challenges relating to driver attraction and retention is a global road transport issue, and one experienced by numerous countries around the world.
“There are of course a complex range of factors at play here but chief amongst them is a rapidly aging global population – and at the other end of the spectrum – a lack of young people entering the profession,” he said.
“One critical aspect that OEMs like Isuzu can influence is the continued development of safe, comfortable and professional workspaces for drivers to ply their trade,” Sakhaie noted.
“Well beyond the raft of new and exclusive active and passive safety features coming as part of its Australian release, Isuzu’s all-new line-up has amassed a string of critical in-cab improvements that rarely catch the headlines,” he said.
Isuzu says its design team started with what it quaintly calls a “reimagined cabin structure”, which in real world rather than corporate speak probably equates to redesigned and re-engineered which the company claims sought to ‘dramatically improve overall safety, dimensions, visibility and storage’.
Along with the new exterior styling and the roomier interior the company is emphasising the trucks are better ergonomically, comfort-wise and in terms of safety.
The new N Series according to Isuzu is underpinned by a new electrical architecture, and all models in the MY25 N Series range will include seven new active safety features, alongside what it claims are the eight systems already available in its Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) in the current model 4×2 N Series line-up.
New features include Full Speed Adaptive Cruise Control (F-ACC) on all two-pedal models, something called ‘Miss Acceleration Mitigation” (MAM) on selected models and Bi-LED headlamps with integrated Daytime Running Lamps (DRL).
Isuzu say its F-ACC uses in-vehicle sensors to detect distance and speed difference between the truck and preceding vehicles in the same lane, and then maintains a safe distance between them.
With its MAM technology the company says it reduces the chances of a driver colliding with objects either in front or at the rear of the truck if the accelerator is accidentally depressed from a stationary position.
The company claims that its new Bi-LED headlamps provide better lighting coverage with both high and low beam. That seams a logical claim given that the vast majority of new automotive products are now fitted with the newer lighting technology. The new lights are integrated with improved daytime running lights.
The new N Series also gets Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR) using Isuzu’s stereo camera technology, a tech is also employed by car maker Subaru. This apparently combines with an Intelligent Speed Limiter (ISL) function to help the driver to stay within posted limits.
Stepping up into its revised medium-duty range, Isuzu’s MY25 F Series gets an even bigger safety boost according to the company.
The company claims every F Series model, including its 4x4s, benefit from a “baseline suite”, containing 12 active and passive systems, including an Auto Lighting System (ALS).
Isuzu claims that depending on the application, some models come equipped with more safety, including a typical FV variant, which it says will get 17 active and passive safety features.
F-ACC cruise control will on almost every model in the F Series range, except its 4×4 and itsmanual transmission FRR and FSR models.
At the heavy end of Isuzu’s line-up, the new FX-FY Series also gets an all-encompassing safety arrangement that the company says matches its lighter cousins in medium-duty.
Again, some of the changes have been as a result of upcoming ADR regulation mandates, including Electronic Stability Control (ESC), which will be fitted as standard on all models in the. FZ-FY heavy range.
The heavies also now come fitted with F-ACC cruise control across all models, which the company claims offers a range of safety actions for highway driving in and around major cities.
Isuzu is claiming a boon for fleet customers with driver, road safety and compliance obligations in mind with the addition of its Lane Keep Assist (LKA) to its heavy range.
Many of the new Isuzus will boast upgraded ergonomic suspension seating across what the company says is ‘a large selection of the range’ as standard equipment. The company says the new driver’s seating is ‘noticeably more comfortable’, and its positioning has been optimised to accommodate greater visibility, along with easier access to driver controls, stalks and other dash functions.
It claims the new trucks have a revised driving position with what it calls ‘a wider STRG’ tilt and telescopic steering shaft range, a wider seat slide and a better pedal layout.
The trucks will have a smaller diameter, steering wheel, presumably giving it a more car like driving experience, which the company claims will give safer overall handling and manoeuvrability, especially in busy city and urban operations.
As part of the leap forward into 21st century safety and tech Isuzu claims its new steering wheels have also been enhanced using electric actuators for driver support functions and better ease of use.
The company claims the wheels have been optimised offer better driver control, and to work seamlessly alongside on-board safety tech, including its Advanced Driver Safety System (ADAS), audio prompts and handsfree functions via a new in-dash multimedia unit.
The new seven-inch, instrument cluster display, which is in direct line of sight of the driver, is framed by a tradtional ‘analogue style’ tachometer on the left and speedo on the right, with a new and very clear the electronic display screen in the middle showing a range of trip, range and economy information as well as what Isuzu calls an “ADAS-attuned safety control”.
Other driver-aid information can also be displayed on the screen, including vehicle and exterior temperatures, fuel gauge, battery charge, tyre pressure and AdBlue levels, as well a shift mode and gear indicator.
“To the everyday operator, many of these in-cabin comfort and control features may be deemed as periphery and in many ways that’s to be expected when pitted against other headline features.” Sakhaie said.
“That said, in unpacking some of the thought and consideration that has been channelled into these new cabins really drives home just how central driver wellbeing has been to their design and development,” he added.
“Put together, the overall benefit to the driver is as compelling as it is reassuring.
“It’s this granular attention to detail, however small it may appear, that goes a long way to getting more people into the truck driving profession and hopefully keeping those already there behind the wheel of an Isuzu truck for many years to come,” he said.
