With the recently introduced Traviz, Isuzu Philippines manages to enter a new segment, globally, and re-enter an old one, locally. With the Traviz, Isuzu expands their market to include 3-ton lightweight trucks notched under their existing light-duty haulers. And, now, particularly with the utility van (UV) configuration of the Traviz, Isuzu revisits their niche  in the old Asian utility vehicle (AUV) market, bringing back a classic Jeepney-like configuration that predates that of the bestselling Crosswind wagon they were compelled to retire in 2018.

New lightweight truck for developing markets

Ironically, for the country’s top truck brand, the Traviz is their first hauler in the 2.5 to 3 ton gross vehicle weight (GVW) range. Before this lightweight truck was introduced, Isuzu’s range reached down only as far as the 4-ton NLR77 that they’ve configured, at one point, as the rather large multi-purpose UV-bodied Flexitruck. 

Named the TRAGA for Indonesia which Isuzu figures to be a growth driver for the world’s light commercial vehicles market, they didn’t even have their own in-house model until the new lightweight truck was introduced for the first time globally in April 2018. For decades, they had instead marketed the Isuzu Bison, a re-badged Mitsubishi L300 with an Isuzu engine.

Indonesia’s TRAGA was purpose-built for developing markets by the Isuzu Group and their Isuzu Global CV Engineering Center (IGCE)–the group’s designated truck engineering unit for emerging markets.  In their press statement about the global launch from Indonesia, Isuzu Motors Limited described the TRAGA as a “full-fledged lightweight truck” developed by adopting “commercial vehicle technologies accumulated within the company based on the D-MAX pickup truck.”

They seem to want to emphasize that for the TRAGA/Traviz they started with the rugged engineering of their usual 4 tons and heavier truck platforms and scaled this down to LCV weights and payloads based on their experience with their popular D-MAX pickup. In their product launch press statement, they assert that the TRAGA/Traviz features a robust and spacious cabin based on that of their N-series light-duty trucks, and a rugged ladder frame based on that of the D-MAX pickup. Their engine choice for the new lightweight truck? The classic Isuzu 4JA1-L low boost turbodiesel–the engine that also powers the Crosswind AUV as well as the re-badged Bison that they’re replacing.

Shortly after the TRAGA was introduced globally out of Indonesia in April 2018, Isuzu Philippines previewed it here during that year’s Philippine International Motors Show (PIMS) in October 2018. The exhibition was meant for measuring local interest and enough such interest was observed to fast track adapting the new model to this market. In record time, the right-hand drive Euro II TRAGA was localized as the left-hand drive Euro IV Traviz for a Philippine launch a year later in November 2019.

Here, it now competes in a new segment (for Isuzu) that’s been dominated by the 2.5 ton Mitsubishi L300, and the 3.0 ton  Kia K2500 and Hyundai H100, and where the Traviz’s newer and purposeful engineering yields a best-in-class payload capacity that makes it an ideal platform for all-purpose utility-van (UV) configurations.

Best-in-class with an old AUV configuration

It took some actual wheel time with the Traviz to validate the notion that while it opens a new truck market segment for the big Japanese brand, it also reprises, in fact reinvents, their pitch for this market’s old and defining AUV segment.

Largest and heaviest among its variants with a long wheelbase and fitted out with a utility van (UV) passenger and cargo carrying rear body that made it about 5 meters long, the Traviz L UV was my main vehicle, in fact my only ride, for several days. It had to be for the duration of the lendout because the parking spot I managed to arrange for it boxed in my regular ride–a sub-compact passenger van.

It is a full-fledged truck. Getting into the driver’s seat in that tall, big-boned cab-over cabin, and the bubble-cockpit perspective that rewards the effort, are enough reminder of the Traviz’s truck pedigree. But, paired with a compact rear deck over a relatively short wheelbase, the Traviz is surprisingly maneuverable and fairly easy to keep in the middle of its shipping lane, so to speak–easy to keep out of trouble on tight or crowded city streets.

The Traviz L UV is an excellent city carry-all.  Certainly bigger than my usual transport, this 5 meter Traviz configuration is still more compact, and maneuverable, than any mid-size pickup truck that comes to mind, including Isuzu’s own D-Max. And this while having the seating capacity for 18 to 20 people–2 to 3 times more carrying capacity than any three-row SUV’s.  And, among those sleek sporty pickups and SUVs, the Traviz’s greater utility seems self-evident and even … generic.

This country’s “utes” aren’t the pickup trucks of developed countries like the US, Canada and Australia (and certainly not the mid-size SUVs that are based on pickup truck platforms). Pickups (and SUVs) cost too much for the purposes of most end users. Observe how the market’s more successful models needed gussying up into premium sporters–touches to distinguish these as stylish on and off-road vehicles for upper bracket buyers. 

End of the day, pickups and SUVs will never seat the minibus-load of people we expect real utility vehicles to transport when needed. It must be the jeepney archetype that’s behind this. A passenger jeepney is more useful than an owner-type, after all. So, here, our utes follow the jeepney template: a truck’s bench seating up front and rear seating that’s side-facing (allowing the vehicle to seat ten or more folks), and that’s foldable (making room for cargo that’ll put food, or eventually be food, on the table).

It’s a configuration that’s been tested and proven by the slew of first-wave AUVs that emerged from the country’s Progressive Car Manufacturing Program in the 1970s (AUVs with simple-stamped jeepney-type bodies like the Toyota Tamaraw, Ford Fiera, Mitsubishi Cimarron and GM Harabas). And it’s an AUV format that persists now with the decades-old Mitsubishi L300 with FB body (meaning UV, like “Frigidaire” is to “refrigerator”) that replaced the Cimarron, as well as with the newer Kia 2500 Karga and Hyundai H-100 Shuttle utility vans.

Now, among its Mitsubishi, Kia and Hyundai rivals, the Traviz with its newer truck engineering is the only one that can take on the heavy burden of a UV rear body and still retain a useful payload of over 1 ton (with a 450kg UV rear body, I estimate the Traviz L’s net payload to hover at around 1,200kg).

Back to basics

On the global stage, the 3 ton Isuzu Traviz gives the top truckmaker a firm foothold in the lightweight truck segment. An excellent move by all accounts since it opens up a whole new segment that’s been untapped here and just perfunctorily served in other markets with a re-badged Mitsubishi mainstay.  But here where our jeepney-influenced and AUV-educated sensibilities make us expect all lightweight and light-duty truck platforms to have UV rear body configurations, the Traviz also represents an industry giant’s next pitch at an old segment.

Its first generation launched as the HiLander in 1991 before being renamed for its second generation iteration in 2000, Isuzu’s wildly successful Crosswind is actually a latecomer to this market’s trademark AUV segment. They missed by several decades the 1970’s first wave of simple-stamped jeepney-type truck AUVs. Now, with the Traviz, Isuzu gets a chance to turn back the clock.

Speculation on whether they’ll bring back the Crosswind with the Traviz’s updated Euro IV compliant 4JA1-L diesel engine can stay just that … speculation. The 3 ton Traviz with UV rear body is already aimed straight at the basic, more pragmatic first-wave AUV segment where entrepreneurial customers use their utes for small and medium scale businesses as well as for big family transport. Coming from the Crosswind sporty status symbol ute, Isuzu and their customers are now challenged by the Traviz to consider a tough big-boned breadwinner AUV instead.

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Editor’s note: stay tuned for a second feature that answers how a de-tuned Euro IV diesel from the 2.2 ton Crosswind succeeds at putting precise power to the 3.0 ton Traviz saddled with a 0.4 ton UV body.