Isuzu joins LTFRB Modern PUV Caravan series, shows new NLR77-based PUV at kick-off event in Clark, Pampanga

Isuzu Philippines Corporation (IPC) joined the LTFRB’s Modern PUV Caravan 2019 with the leading truckmaker showing their next stage NLR77-based Class 2 public utility vehcile (PUV) for the first time in public at the kick off event last Thursday, the fourth of July, in Clark, Pampanga. In what IPC President Hajime Koso confirmed to be the model’s first public appearance, the NLR77-based transport’s showing at the start of the multi-sectoral and months-long road show signals Isuzu’s continued commitment to the much celebrated Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP), yes, but more pointedly represents both an upgrade to and a mainstreaming of their modern PUV line up.

Isuzu QKR77 and NLR77 truck platforms

Back in September 2017 when IPC and partner body builders Centro and Almazora were already several months into the development of Isuzu’s modern PUVs, the brand introduced their updated, Euro-4 compliant light-, medium- and heavy-duty truck lines. That revamp was in response to the  mandate for all newly acquired trucks to have Euro 4 engines by the following year, the initiative that put the country ahead of all other markets in the region.

Since 2017, in what must be tumultuous times for the Philippine market leader and global major player, Isuzu has been: (1) facing a public transport modernization program forecasted to more than double the demand for light-duty trucks until the next decade; (2) responding to an early, some would say premature, push for first-world fuel emissions standards on the nation’s all-important cargo haulers; and (3) all these while defending dominant market shares in all truck segments, something that has defined Isuzu Philippines since before the turn of the millennium.

Accelerated timetables for multiple, and separate, public sector agendas, plus the requirement for market-friendly pricing, forced Isuzu to first build their modern PUV contender on the most basic model of their N-series light-duty truck platforms and then to keep this as a holdover model updated with a new Euro-4 engine after the wholesale revamp in 2017. This was re-designated the QKR77. It featured the previous generation’s cabin (not Isuzu’s current Hexapod design that pushes out walls to maximize internal space) mated to a new 3.0 liter 4JH1-TC turbodiesel that’s made Euro 4 compliant mainly with electronics that fine tune its new high-pressure common-rail fuel injection system (a commercial truck with an engine made high-end refined with a CRDi package).

The QKR77 platform has been put to good use, accounting for over a hundred units sold since Isuzu delivered the modernization program’s very first jeepney replacements–15 units of Class 2 PUVs, to the pioneering Senate Employees Transport Service Cooperative (SETSCO) of Pasay City in June last year.  Last month, Isuzu delivered the program’s first Class 3 PUVs–15 units to the Metro Comet Transport Cooperative to serve as point-to-point transports between Rizal and Metro Manila.

Now, IPC President Koso reports that they’ve not only kept their modern jeepney models at pace with Isuzu’s global line up with their development of the current-model NLR77-based PUV, Isuzu Philippines has also diversified vertically with new local production of driveline components for their light-duty trucks.  The new NLR77-based PUV: features bodywork by large scale body builder Santa Rosa Motor Works of Laguna; mounts a prototype roof-mounted airconditioning pack that they are working on with global brand Denso; and is equipped with a 5-speed manual transmission and a drive axle that are now produced locally by IPC (for the NLR77 as well as all other light-duty truck models).

Isuzu’s move to mainstream their modern PUV models with the new NLR77 build, and their localization of transmission and axle production for these as well as other light-duty truck models, put meat to Koso’s assertion that Isuzu PUVs are “of the Filipinos, by the Filipinos, for the Filipinos,” and, more importantly, demonstrate how the leading truckmaker is putting muscle to the nation’s efforts to modernize the transport sector.

LTFRB Modern PUV Caravan

The Land Transportation and Franchise Regulatory Board’s (LTFRB’s) Modern PUV Caravan is a series of exhibits to be held nationwide until next year to showcase the new PUV’s that major truckmakers and body builders have developed for the nation’s PUV Modernization Program (PUVMP) initiative to replace classic but obsolete modes of public transport.  At the directive of the LTFRB Chairman Atty. Martin Delgra III, LTO Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante and the cabinet OIC for Road Transportation and Infrastructure Undersecretary Mark Richmond de Leon who attended the kick-off exhibit last week, each exhibition event of the Modern PUV Caravan are to be venues for government one-stop-shops to answer the questions of all PUVMP stakeholders, particularly the transport cooperatives and their drivers who will be operating these new tricycle, jeepney and minibus replacements.

The Modern PUV Caravan’s first phase from July 4 to August 2 will be at the following locations in North Luzon:

• Clark and San Fernando in Pampanga on July 4 to 5
• Tarlac, July 8
• Urdaneta and Dagupan, Pangasinan, July 10
• Baguio, Benguet, July 12
• San Fernando, La Union, July 15
• Vigan, Ilocos Sur, July 1
• Laoag, Ilocos Norte, July 19
• Tuguegarao, Cagayan Valley, July 24
• Cauayan, Isabela, July 26
• Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, July 29
• Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, July 31
• Marilao, Bulacan, August 2

The roadshow’s second phase in September will be at the following South Luzon venues:

• The Paranaque Integrated Terminal Exchange on September 2
• Antipolo, Rizal, September 4
• Bacoor, Cavite, September 6
• Santa Rosa, Laguna, September 9
• Lipa, Batangas, September 11
• Calapan, Mindoro, September 13
• Lucena, Quezon, September 16
• Boac, Marinduque, September 18
• Naga, Camarines Sur, September 20
• Legaspi, Albay, September 23
• Puerta Princesa, Palawan, date to be announced later

The third phase in November will bring the exhibitions to the Visayas at the following locations:

• Catbalogan in Samar on November 4
• Tacloban and Ormoc, Leyte, November 6
• Tagbilaran, Bohol, November 8
• Cebu City, November 11
• Iloilo, Panay, November 15
• Bacolod, Negros Occidental, November 18
• Dumaguete, Negros Oriental, November 20

The fourth and final phase in January and February next year will bring then Modern PUV Caravan to Mindanao.

For information and updates on the Modern PUV Caravan, visit http://www.isuzuphil.com.