The company today known as UD Trucks was established in 1935. This year they’re kicking off a 90th anniversary campaign to celebrate nearly a century of trucks. The large truck and bus maker was founded by Kenzo Adachi in Saitama Prefecture and originally known as Nihon Diesel Industries. In 1960 Nissan purchased it and renamed it Nissan Diesel.
The name Nissan Diesel stuck around for most of its life. In 2007 it was taken over by the Volvo Group and a few years later, in 2010, the name was officially changed to UD Trucks. The name stemmed from the Uniflow Diesel engine developed in 1955. In 2021 the company was acquired once again, this time by Isuzu.
That led to a venture in which Toyota purchased 4.8 percent of Isuzu. Today, Isuzu, Hino, and UD all collaborate on technologies, including fuel cell and electric trucks. It’s a tumultuous history, but one that has stood the test of time. To celebrate, the company has released a brief video of its history and will release special editions of its Quon and Condor trucks.
… Back in the Philippines, buses that wore the Nissan Diesel and UD badges were mainly seen with the Marikina Auto Line Corporation (MALTC) outfit – until today – even when they were joined by air-conditioned and non-AC-powered ones from fellow Japanese truck makers Isuzu and Hino Motors, and later, Chinese marques that also wore the same MALTC name with its signature yellow, orange and red colors. (But due to the Philippines struggling to be a free-market economy meant that UD buses were not only outpaced by its fellow compatriots and brands originating from China like Dongfeng, Foton, King Long, Higer, Yutong etc., but also to a lesser extent European names which neither go big in Asia-Pacific nor North America like Exor-backed Iveco and Volkswagen’s MAN, but not the other VW brand Scania nor fellow Swede Volvo Trucks.)
But unlike Iveco – to which it liquidated the now-former bus division of Renault Trucks in 1999, Volvo (Trucks), MAN and Scania – as well as Mercedes-Benz / Daimler Truck (which owns Fuso with the Mitsubishi logo), neither Isuzu and UD, nor Hino are popular (and as well as widespread) in all of Europe, but in parts of Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand (NZ) in contrast, three of them Japanese (truck makers) does quite well – especially when the Isuzu name in Oz became widespread until the time the Holden name discontinued itself in 2020. Plus, the connections between Isuzu and UD may have been dating back when the former (Isuzu) was part of the former Nissan group that contained the eponymous manufacturer, as well as when Nissan acquired Subaru in 1968 (which lasted for 31 years when Renault took over Nissan and General Motors bought Subaru as a result) – part of the fact was because Nissan utilized Subaru’s bus making capability for the former’s UD bus range that time, among others.
Still, with the UD, Isuzu and Hino names have both little attention outside the Indo-Pacific region (Asia, Oceania and Africa), as well as given that the Isuzu name no longer focuses on developing passenger vehicles – but according to research Isuzu still exists in the US as a commercial vehicle manufacturer / expert, then with the addition of Toyota’s controversies that didn’t date back 2010 – which also involves Hino and UD’s owner Isuzu, I think Toyota may have load off Hino, Daihatsu, Yamaha, Subaru, Mazda, Suzuki, Isuzu and UD to Stellantis (which is also under Exor along with Ferrari) so that PSA and Fiat’s successor would liquidate them (as well as Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors, Kawasaki and Fuso from Benz) in favor of promoting and increasing the presences of the former Fiat Chrysler units (plus Jeep and especially Lancia) and even Iveco in the Asia-Pacific market as a result – in that case both Stellantis Europe SpA and Iveco are located in Turin, Italy…