Isuzu North America Corporation has announced that it is establishing a new production base in Greenville County, South Carolina to expand its vehicle supply capabilities in anticipation of the electrification of commercial vehicles in North America. 

The company has purchased a 1,000,000 square foot facility on 200 acres of land that it is converting into a state-of-the-art, Isuzu-run, assembly plant.

A New Production System

The new assembly plant will introduce a variable-model, variable-volume production system that produces both internal combustion engine vehicles and electric vehicles.

It will be the first facility in the Isuzu Group to use a production line without conveyors or pits, a highly advanced line that maximizes flexibility and scalability. 

In addition, the plant’s quality assurance system will automate inspections to eliminate operational errors, ensure traceability of parts, and introduce image inspections and other methods to prevent the leakage of defective products.

The size of the Greenville plant will enable Isuzu to consolidate all production-related operations under one roof. This will include KD storage and processing, parts storage, vehicle production and PIO operations. It will also allow for streamlining processes and improving efficiency, the OEM said.

The campus also has sufficient acreage to store all completed trucks at a single site. The plant will give Isuzu direct control over all assembly and logistics operations and will provide Isuzu with the flexibility and speed to meet the demands of a quickly evolving North American commercial vehicle market.

Optimal Location and Space

The plant is located close to the region’s main interstate corridor, I-85, which connects Greenville to Atlanta, GA and Charlotte, NC, and to I-26, which connects to the deepest port on the eastern seaboard, the Port of Charleston. 

Isuzu worked closely with state and county officials in its selection of the site. Greenville County, in the Upstate region of South Carolina, is one of the fastest-growing industrial markets in the country and has a readily available labor pool for operations within the plant as well a skilled workforce coming out of nearby colleges. 

The region already has a large and growing automotive production base that will be further enhanced by Isuzu’s operations.

Isuzu’s total investment in the plant (including land, building, tooling and equipment) is expected to equal approximately $280 million dollars. The plant will have a production capacity of 50,000 units by 2030 and will initially produce Isuzu N-Series Gas, N-Series Electric, and F-Series diesel trucks.

Initial assembly operations will begin in 2027 and will further expand in 2028, at which time, the plant is expected to employ more than 700 people.

Noboru Murakami, president of Isuzu North America Corporation, stated: “The establishment of an Isuzu-owned and operated production base in the United States reflects both Isuzu’s commitment to, and success in, the North American market. The plant will be optimally designed for our needs, streamline our processes, provide us with flexibility to react to changing market conditions, and position us for even greater growth in the North American Market.”

Isuzu Trucks entered the North American truck market in 1984, and the company sold 44,000 units in the last fiscal year, its highest total ever. 

In addition to expanding its production base in North America, the company aims to increase its procurement of components necessary for the production of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and to further expand its advanced automotive technology research and development initiatives in North America.