Hirotake Kitagawa

Sep 25, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Hirotake Kitagawa |Ryosuke Hanada

TOKYO/MUMBAI -- Suzuki Motor plans to develop markets in regional cities in India in a bid to create a network of 6,800 dealerships across the country by fiscal 2030, starting in April that year, an increase of around 70% from the present, highlighting the importance of the Indian market for global automakers. Maruti Suzuki, Suzuki's subsidiary, is the biggest automaker in India, with a local market share for passenger cars of around 40%.

Sep 17, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Hirotake Kitagawa |Yuki Fukumoto

NAGOYA, Japan/TOKYO -- Japanese self-driving startup Tier IV is challenging the dominance of Tesla and Google in the field by releasing free software to lower the barrier to entry by less wealthy players. Isuzu Motors is adopting Tier IV's Autoware operating system for its plans to operate buses that run on Level 4 autonomy -- one notch below full autonomy, requiring human intervention in a few cases -- in fiscal 2027.

Aug 26, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Hirotake Kitagawa

YOKOHAMA -- Isuzu Motors will jointly develop self-driving trucks capable of full automation under certain conditions with U.S. vehicle software startup Applied Intuition, aiming to put the vehicles on Japanese highways from fiscal 2027. Isuzu President Shinsuke Minami told Nikkei that the automaker's collaboration with Applied Intuition has solidified its plans, laid out in April, to start Level 4 truck and bus operations in fiscal 2027.

Jul 30, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Hirotake Kitagawa

TOKYO -- Japan's Isuzu Motors will start selling locally assembled compact electric trucks in North America in August and expand into midsize trucks in 2026, ahead of the U.S. government's implementation of stricter vehicle emissions regulations, starting in 2027, Nikkei has learned. Isuzu will export components from Japan for assembly by a local partner.

Jun 16, 2024 | asia.nikkei.com | Hirotake Kitagawa |Kazuyuki Okudaira

TOKYO -- Suzuki Motor will team up with a Nagoya-based startup to develop self-driving technology for minicars, aiming to meet demand from Japan's less-populated regions in need of compact autonomous cars that can travel on narrow roads. The Japanese automaker has underwritten a portion of a roughly 8 billion yen ($50 million) capital increase by Tier IV, which develops autonomous driving technology and assists carmakers in its adoption.