Global Expansion, Fuel Efficiency Focus of Japan’s Truck Makers

TOKYO – Slowly but surely, Japanese truck makers are building a business base to ensure steady growth.

All are focusing on lowering costs in the face of increasingly global competition and investing in fuel-saving powertrain technologies. Most are putting money into new overseas production facilities.

In fact, almost all new trucks and buses coming onto the market in Japan meet the nation’s JP09 emissions and 2015 fuel-efficiency standards that require more than 60% reductions in nitrogen-oxide and particulate-matter emissions compared with 2005 levels.

Japan’s top-ranked truck maker, Isuzu, is downsizing its diesel-engine lineup through introduction of its “D-Core” technology as part of its emissions-reduction drive.

D-Core incorporates variable turbocharging, high-pressure common-rail injection and large-capacity exhaust-gas recirculation. It debuted in 2006 with the launch of the remodeled Elf light truck, followed by the Forward and Giga medium- and heavy-duty trucks in 2009.

With the Elf’s introduction, Isuzu reduced displacement of its 4JJ1 engine from 4.6L to 3.0L. The Giga and Forward engines, 4HK1 and 6UZ1 series, saw displacements cut from 15.6L to 9.8L and 7.8L to 5.2L.

All three trucks have cleared Japan’s new long-term emissions regulations.

The Forward, sold overseas as the F Series, still offers the 7.8L 6HK1 engine as an option, but the truck maker is considering phasing it out.

“By reducing displacement, the volume of exhaust gas declines,” says a spokesman. “Smaller engines are lighter, giving us the added advantage of more load capacity.”

In fiscal 2011, Isuzu produced 220,334 trucks in Japan including 188,774 medium- and heavy-duty models. It also built 2,265 large commuter buses. In the first six months of the current year, it was well ahead of last year’s pace with production totaling 113,559 units.

Outside Japan, mostly in Thailand, Isuzu produced 346,000 D-Max and Chevrolet Colorado pickup trucks.

Plans call for boosting production of all truck types to 1 million units by fiscal 2016. Half will be pickups according to the company’s midterm business plan.

Isuzu will transfer part of next-generation medium- and heavy-duty truck production to China and expand diesel output there.

It also will begin light-duty truck production in India and boost pickup volume in Southeast Asia to 467,000 units, from 324,000 in fiscal 2011. Capacity at its new Thai plant east of Bangkok, which opened in October, will grow to 400,000 units.

Medium-duty truck production in Southeast Asia will more than double from 38,000 units to 81,000. Included will be new capacity in Indonesia (Isuzu’s main production center for medium-duty trucks), Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

By the end of this year, Isuzu plans to launch complete-knocked-down (CKD) production in Saudi Arabia.

Isuzu also will nearly double global diesel-engine output to 956,000 units, from 560,000 in fiscal 2011. Included in the total will be engines produced at the new truck plant in Thailand.

Total planned vehicle and powertrain facility investment will reach ¥200 billion ($2.5 billion) between fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2014.

Hino, Japan’s largest manufacturer of medium- and heavy-duty trucks, opened a new plant this year in Koga, Ibaraki prefecture, initially to produce knockdown parts for its plants in Thailand, Indonesia and, beginning in 2014, Malaysia.

By 2020, the manufacturer plans to shift production of medium- and heavy-duty trucks (Ranger and Profia models) to Koga from its main Hino plant west of Tokyo. Cumulative investment by 2020, including a new axle and propeller shaft plant, will reach an estimated ¥50 billion ($628 million).

Near-term, Hino plans to raise global production capacity to 230,000 units by 2015, excluding models built for parent Toyota.

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus, since 2005 a Daimler subsidiary, is aiming for an 8% operating profit margin by 2015, at which time it hopes to reduce fleet carbon-dioxide emissions in part by moving into the hybrid field.

In 2008, the truck maker opened a global hybrid center inside its Kawasaki R&D complex. The center is dedicated to developing hybrid technology for all Daimler Truck operations including Japan, Europe and North America.

In October, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Assn. reported Japanese truck makers sold 1,965 hybrid vehicles in fiscal 2011, along with 78,927 diesel trucks that met the nation’s JP09 emissions standards.