Isuzu Motors Ltd. is a Japanese commercial vehicle and heavy truck manufacturer company, headquartered in Tokyo. In 2005, Isuzu was the world’s largest manufacturer of medium duty trucks. It has assembly and manufacturing plants in the Japanese city of Fujisawa, as well as in the prefectures Tochigi and Hokkaido. Isuzu is famous for producing commercial vehicles and diesel engines – it produced 16 million diesel engines in 2003 alone, which can be found in vehicles all over the world.
In most of Asia and Europe, Isuzu is mostly known for trucks of all sizes, while in the United States it’s mostly known for automobiles and SUVs. Isuzu as a corporation has always been primarily a manufacturer of commercial trucks of sizes medium duty and larger, but markets around the world shows different needs. Isuzu have a contract with Budget Truck Rental to manufacture their rental trucks. This contract is also shared with Ford, GMC, and Navistar International.
On November 7, 2006, Toyota acquired 5.9% of Isuzu, making them the third largest shareholder behind ITOCHU and Mitsubishi Corporation.