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Isuzu mulling all-new pick up truck for India?

In the coming years, Japanese utility vehicle maker Isuzu could launch a product tailor made for the Indian market. A pick up truck that is engineered to suit Indian needs could be what Isuzu has in mind. Currently, details of the new Isuzu pick up truck remain sketchy at best.

Isuzu mulling all-new pick up truck for India?

In the India of today, pick up trucks remain confined to commercial uses such as goods transport and agriculture. The lifestyle pick up truck user is still a negligible market serviced by a handful of products such as the Tata Xenon XT 4X4, Mahindra Scorpio Getaway and the recently launched Isuzu D-Max Space Cab.

As disposable incomes grow and as more and more car buyers are looking at expedition vehicles for road trips, the lifestyle pick up truck segment could witness a boom. It is perhaps with this line of thought that Isuzu is mulling an India specific product, one that can rival the likes of the Xenon XT and the Scorpio Getaway.

Isuzu mulling all-new pick up truck for India?

The new pick up truck is likely to be priced above the D-Max but below the flagship MU-7 SUV. This positioning strongly points to a pick up truck for the lifestyle buyer segment. A pick up truck with four wheel drive, a powerful turbo diesel engine, a decent set of creature comforts and safety features, at a sharp price tag could be the push that the lifestyle segment needs and Isuzu is well placed to enter this segment come 2016.

Isuzu has just launched the D-Max range of pick up trucks in India. These pick up trucks will be CKD assembled at Hindustan Motors’ Tiruvallur factory, off Chennai. The CKD assembly arrangement that Isuzu has with Hindustan Motors is a stop gap arrangement at best, and is likely to go on until 2016.

The Japanese utility vehicle giant has begun constructing a greenfield manufacturing facility at Sri City,
situated at present day Andhra Pradesh. The factory, strategically located at the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border seeks to make use of Chennai’s well developed Ennore port. The new factory will go on stream in 2016.

The new factory will be used as an export base for Isuzu and the company is expected to begin manufacturing the D-Max pick up truck range with a high amount of localization. The factory will have an annual capacity of 120,000 units.

Via AutocarPro

Jayprashanth Mohanram

Jayprashanth, the News Editor at Cartoq.com, has a seasoned history in motoring journalism spanning 15 years. His lifelong passion for cars led him to a career in automotive journalism, offering readers compelling insights. With an engineering background, Jay has crafted pieces that have gained recognition in notable publications such as the New York Times. Prior to his role at Cartoq.com, where he has overseen news operations since 2016, Jay was the founding editor of Indiancarsbikes.com and spent two years as the news editor at Team-bhp. At Cartoq, he ensures the news is timely, accurate, and resonates with the brand's dedicated audience of automotive enthusiasts. (Full bio)