FOUNDED IN 1916,
ISUZU MOTORS HAS THE LONGEST HISTORY OF ANY JAPANESE VEHICLE MANUFACTURER.
During our years of operation,we have consistently focused on “creation without compromise” in the process of building Isuzu into the company it is today. And now we are boldly taking up the challenge of global leadership in commercial vehicles and diesel engines while maintaining our traditions.
” Changing Global Standards, Bringing Reliability to The World. “
Commercial vehicles to move things and diesel engines to provide the power-these are essential to support people’s lives around the world. By expanding our operations across the globe from Japan, Isuzu products now benefit people in over 100 countries.
To ensure the most advanced safety, economic and environmental performance as well as superb service,we are moving forward in product development, quality,manufacturing systems and customer support, which will become the new global standards of excellence.
We are Isuzu, a company that is striving to gain the trust of each every person around the world.
It is an uncompromising commitment to improvement for better products and a better partnership with the world.
THE FIRST PASSENGER CAR
PRODUCED IN JAPAN
PRODUCED IN JAPAN
Isuzu’s history can be traced back to its earliest antecedent company,
Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Ltd., which was established in 1893.
In 1916, this company diversified into car making, using capital amassed from its highly profitable shipbuilding business (Isuzu’s foundation year) and in 1918, started a passenger vehicle production venture in a tie-up with the British automaker Wolseley Motor Ltd.In 1922, Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipbuilding & Engineering succeeded in localizing production of the Wolseley A9 – the first passenger car ever made in Japan. This achievement was followed in 1924 by the completion of the first Japanese-built Wolseley
CP 1.5-ton payload truck qualified as an official military truck by the Japanese government.In 1927, Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipbuilding & Engineering ended its tie-up with Wolseley and began manufacturing the 100% localized vehicles of its own design. An early example was the “Sumida”, developed in 1929, which was equipped with an A6 or an A4 engine and realized excellent power and fuel consumption.
“The First Car Builder of Japan”
THE ORIGIN OF ISUZU VEHICLE
In the same year that the “Sumida” appeared, the Car Department was split off from Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipbuilding & Engineering and established as an independent company named Ishikawa Automotive Works Co., Ltd. The late 1920s was a period when car ownership was beginning to expand in the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, as automobiles were demonstrating their potential to speed the pace of recovery following the disaster. In view of the growing demand for motor vehicles, the Japanese Government promoted domestic automobile industry. In 1933, Ishikawa Automotive Works responded by launching the “Isuzu”, a government standard model car named after the Isuzu River that flows past the Japan’s oldest shrine, the Ise Shrine of Mie prefecture. The company’s present name was later taken from that of the car.
THE ROOTS OF ISUZU DIESEL
In 1933, Ishikawa Automotive Works merged with DAT Automobile Manufacturing Inc. to establish a new company called Automobile Industries Co., Ltd. This company poured its energies into the development of diesel engines, a technology that had not yet been commercially established even in the advanced nations of Europe and North America, and by 1936 the company had succeeded in developing two air-cooled diesel engine models, the DA6 and the DA4. These early diesels were to serve as the foundation of all later generations of Isuzu diesel engines.