General Motors and Isuzu Motors Limited were once sharing a partnership but they fell apart in the year 2006. GM had first acquired ownership in Isuzu Motors in the year 1971. Slowly and gradually, GM had acquired a total ownership of 49% in Isuzu Motors but by 2006, it had sold the last 7.6% of its shares for a total of $300 million. It was a long and drawn out departure for the 2 firms. This led to loss of passenger car by Isuzu in the States as well heavy duty trucks for General Motors. Now it seems like the 2 companies are trying to get together once again by signing a memorandum of understanding for an alliance. The company is joining hands to roll out pickup trucks.
It has been revealed that Isuzu is rolling out a new pickup truck in India and it will be using GM sourced diesel engine for it. This will lead to decreased operational costs and will spare Isuzu with the hectic process of technology development. At the same time this partnership will allow General Motors to get an entry into Isuzu’s huge south Asian market and get hands on Isuzu’s diesel technology. Thus both the firms get to equally benefit from this partnership.
Isuzu will be supplied with a total of 100, 00 diesel engines manufactured by GM in India.
The engines will be manufactured with the help of Isuzu technology. GM most likely will be using its Talegaon manufacturing facility to develop the engines. Since the engines will locally produced by GM, Isuzu can achieve its plan of launching low cost pickup trucks in the country as well as in Africa.
The company worked together earlier on pickup trucks like the mid-sized GM Chevrolet Colorado which is sold by Isuzu as the i series. Even after the segregation the 2 firms continued to help each other in their ventures. In the year 2011, GM and Isuzu together worked on developing an upgraded Isuzu D Max and collaborated in sales in South Africa and Latin America. In May earlier this year, Isuzu Motors limited had reported a 20% increase in the share value with a profit of 96.5 billion Japanese Yen which is around $946 million for the business year that ended on 31st of March 2013. This was as a result of increase in demand in the overseas markets.
We don’t know as if now whether the upcoming pickup truck will be based on D-Max or will be a completely new vehicle. We do know that the new truck will be on sale in India, in the year 2016.