An electric Isuzu D-Max ute is a step closer to reality after its truck division unveiled a battery-powered option for the company's iconic 3.0-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine.

At the Brisbane Truck Show last week, Isuzu Trucks Australia – a separate entity to Isuzu Ute Australia, which sells the D-Max ute and MU-X SUV – revealed its first model to be powered by an electric motor, a new option for the N Series EV light-duty truck.

The electric motor – which Isuzu claims can has peak outputs of 110kW to 150kW and 370Nm – is mounted behind the truck’s cab and sends drive to the rear wheels through a traditional driveshaft and differential assembly.

Powering the Isuzu N Series is the ‘4JJ1’ four-cylinder turbo-diesel diesel engine, previously found in the D-Max from 2006 until 2020 (also found in certain variants of the Holden Rodeo and Colorado), and considered to be the predecessor to the ‘4JJ3’ engine in the current-generation Isuzu D-Max and MU-X.

Given the truck and ute share similar diesel engines, the electric technology previewed in the new Isuzu N Series could also be used in future versions of the Isuzu D-Max – should Isuzu choose to make its popular ute available with the option of battery power.

While executives from Isuzu’s truck and ute divisions told Drive an electric D-Max is not currently in the works, they acknowledged it could be technically possible to use the truck division's electric tech on future utes.

However, there are a number of hurdles to overcome before an electric Isuzu D-Max makes it to local showrooms.

The batteries which power the Isuzu N Series EV are packaged in 20kWh modules which resemble the shape and size of truck fuel tanks – rather than the slim and wide batteries found in most electric cars, which means the battery packs may need to be redesigned before being fitted to a ute.

While the top-of-the-range Isuzu D-Max develops 140kW and 450Nm from its 3.0-litre turbo-diesel engine, the peak outputs for the electric motor in the Isuzu N Series EV are 150kW and 370Nm – representing a modest power gain but a deficit in torque compared to the ute.

Price could be another hurdle to overcome. For example, the LDV eT60 – the only electric ute on sale in Australia – costs more than twice the price of the most expensive diesel-powered LDV T60, which starts from $92,990 plus on-road costs.

Much of the price difference between the two variants is attributed to the raw material costs of an electric-car battery, which could continue to rise as demand for lithium starts to overtake supply.

Source: Drive Australia

Hyundai is firmly focused on its exciting electric future, but it’s not above the occasional nostalgic glance backward.

The South Korean automaker unveiled a faithful recreation of the Pony Coupe Concept from 1974 last Friday at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy. The original two-door never went into production, and this version isn’t likely to either, but that doesn’t make the retro-futuristic sports car any less cool.

The Pony Coupe Concept may share a name with the Hyundai’s first car, but that’s about it. The prototype, which was designed by the legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro, made its debut at the Turin Motor Show in 1974. Like Giugiaro’s most famous creation, the DeLorean DMC-12, the two-door features a wedge shape and sharp lines. Unfortunately, when the Pony eventually did go into production it was a much more utilitarian vehicle that barely resembled the Italian’s vision. Despite this, the bold concept has long been an object of fascination for enthusiasts and was the primary visual influence for last year’s crowd-pleasing N Vision 74 concept.

To ensure that the reproduction was as accurate as possible, Hyundai brought in Giugiaro to oversee the project. Under the Italdesign cofounder’s watchful eye, the vehicle was completely rebuilt utilizing the original methods and materials used back in the ‘70s. Every aspect of the car, from its headlights to its instrument panel to its wheels, looks exactly as it would have brand new. Even the power train—a 1.3-liter inline-four that produces just 82 hp—is the same.

“The restoration of this unique vehicle is a milestone in Hyundai’s history,” Luc Donckerwolke, the automaker’s president and chief creative officer, said in a statement. “It represents our beginnings and our commitment to the future. It serves as a legacy for generations to come.”

As cool as the Pony Coupe Concept may look, you shouldn’t expect to see it on the road anytime soon. All signs point to the angular sports car being a one-off. The same goes for the N Vision 74 concept that it inspired, despite recent rumors saying otherwise. Still, there’s no denying that the Pony Coupe Concept will continue to hold a special spot in Hyundai’s heart for years to come.

Source: Rob Report

Imagine if, 10 years ago, someone had said to you, in a decade’s time, the car manufacturer you’d most admire would be Hyundai. You’d giggle yourself clean out of your Recaro.

The only way your past self could see that fanciful statement being true – that the Korean maker of ordinary economy hatchbacks (with only a light dusting of rallying in its history) could go from Pony to thoroughbred in such a short time – is if the world received an almighty shake-up.

Thanks to a global pandemic, a complete eradication of dignity in our world leaders and some of our long-held human rights being at risk, it feels very much like a different planet now than 10 years ago.

But it’s not this cultural reset that has made us look at Hyundai differently. No, it’s Hyundai that’s changed dramatically, and the automaker was on this trajectory way before such major world events forced their way into our lives.

It was 2016, with the launch of Hyundai’s performance brand, N, that set the tone for the company’s reinvention. And we were not prepared. Not at all.

I covered the reveal of the first N, the i30 N. It shows how little faith we had in Hyundai that I, the most junior member of staff of the magazine I was working on at the time, was sent to see its unveiling. We thought we knew what was coming.

You see, we’d driven Hyundai’s sister brand’s performance model, the Kia Proceed GT. This warm hatch was well balanced and peppy. It was nice. But you didn’t want one.

There was the Kia Stinger, too. This car showed real promise. It had the basis of an incredible performer, but it was finished with a mass-market glaze – the sort that leaves a bitter aftertaste in the mouth of car lovers.

So we knew what to expect from this new Hyundai hot hatch. A sporty hatchback, but nothing that would worry a VW Golf GTI, and something that wouldn’t see where a Renaultsport product had gone.

But boy were we wrong. The i30 N was a hot hatch done right. Made just the way you’d want it. It was dripping with touches that could only have come from people who love performance cars. At tick-over it sounded just like a WRC car skulking around a service area. To me, the triangular brake light screamed Manta 400 bonnet vent.

And it was engineered properly. It had a limited-slip differential and a tough chassis. It gripped when you wanted it to; it slipped when you didn’t. The entire steering system was new because the regular i30’s wasn’t rigid enough and didn’t provide sufficient feel.

That latter point isn’t the sexiest fact, but that’s the sort of in-depth and expensive modification that rarely gets past a car company’s accountants. It shows how dedicated Hyundai was to making the i30 N a proper hot hatch contender. Maybe, even at the expense of any profit. I’ve always assumed that Hyundai loses money on the i30 N given it feels so exquisitely engineered.

It’s worth the lack of profit, though, because the i30 is the foundation of the N brand. If it wasn’t as strong, if it was, say, like the Kia Proceed GT, then we wouldn’t be applauding it now.

The i30 N was the spark that made us all turn our heads east and pay attention to Hyundai. The Kona, Veloster and i20 have all received the N treatment with much the same success as the original.

Then there are the non-performance Hyundai models that we just can’t take our eyes off. The Ioniq 5 might be an electric hatchback – a huge one at that – but it looks like it should be restricted to a slowly rotating turntable – it’s too futuristic to be a car you can just buy. Hyundai’s van, the Staria, is equally mystifying. Both are stop-you-in-the-street stunning… a hatchback and a van.

Then we get onto Hyundai’s actual concept cars and prototypes. These sorts of cars, fanciful never-going-to-make-it-to-production machines, are rarely exciting. Often wonderful looking, undoubtedly, but they’re usually designed to be exhibited at stale motor shows. Their sole purpose to boast about spurious new technology and get industry and design guys hot under their indoor scarves.

Hyundai didn’t get that memo. The Korean brand’s concepts want to show us – people who actually buy and love cars, not industry design types and futurologists – where the company is heading. Hyundai’s prototypes often have the whiff of burnt rubber about them, brilliantly so.

To showcase its future drivetrains, Hyundai has stuffed its electric motors into radically redeveloped Velosters to make not one, but two mid-engined, rear-wheel drive track cars in the form of the N ETCR and the RM20e. The latter has over 800hp.

One of the company’s most bizarre creations is the iMax N, a high-performance drifting eight-seater van. Someone at Hyundai is a Dajiban fan, clearly.

Then there’s the more sedate, but no less captivating, Grandeur restomod that Hyundai made in 2021. An original Grandeur saloon, but with the sheen, elegance and matrix lights from a 1980s vision of the future. It’s retro without seeming gaudy, celebratory without being attention seeking, and humorous without being a joke. It’s perfectly judged.

Despite these triumphs, Hyundai has managed to outdo itself recently. In early 2022, it launched two concepts that harness new-world tech and unleash it in a way that seems to have – if we didn’t know better – Speedhunters approval stamped all over it.

First is the RN22e, essentially an N version of Hyundai’s swooping Ioniq 6 saloon. In true loveable N-style, it’s in light blue, has plenty of power (569hp) from two electric motors, one for each axle, and torque vectoring at the rear. It’s the way it looks that’s most astounding, though. There’s never been a GT3 race car made from a saloon, because that would be absurd. But it would look incredible and we know that because that’s exactly what the RN22e looks like. Massive wing, huge diffuser, wide stance, blistered arches and everything.

The best of these two concepts, however, is the N Vision 74. It combines the retro styling, high performance and sheer joyous attitude of all the Hyundai concepts we’ve touched on and stuffs those attributes into a wild, wedge-shaped package.

The basis for the N Vision 74 is a Hyundai Pony Coupé concept designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro for the Turin Motor Show of, yes you guessed it, 1974. An updated, modernised and electric version of this crisp coupé would have been lovely. It would have got us talking and sharing a few pics online, just as the Grandeur restomod did.

But Hyundai didn’t leave it there and boy are we grateful. It took the ’70s concept and did what, well, any of us would do to it. What we’d do to it if we had an unlimited budget and the right combination of reverence and disrespect for the company’s heritage.

The N Vision 74 has a 1970s Group 5 silhouette-style body kit. Big wide box arches that finish abruptly at the doors to leave gaping cooling holes fore and aft. Its wheels are like a cleaned-up version of the turbofans found on a Trans Am Audi 200 Quattro, big and smooth. And, so it doesn’t simply hark bark to race highlights from the past century, it has a massive modern aero package, including a wing, diffuser and splitter.

Why it needs quite so much downforce is perplexing, because the official pictures show it being backed into corners, sideways, well before any apex. I know the images are not real, just digital renders, but pics like this show Hyundai’s intent. This is how it wants you to see its cars, at full opposite lock. That’s another thing about Hyundai you have to admire.

Hyundai seems determined to prove that the future, V8 and petrol-less, will still be irresponsibly fun. The N Vision 74 has two electric motors, but unlike the RN22e, they’re both for the back axle to make pulverising rubber much easier. It’s hydrogen-powered too, our favourite ‘new’ form of propulsion. None of that lengthy charge time.

It seems as though there’s someone like us – someone with Eurobeat punctuated by 4A-GE induction noise constantly playing in our heads – that’s making decisions at Hyundai. Heck, more than one person. It seems like there’s a team of people who really love cars there.

That’s why I admire Hyundai right now. Each one of its concepts or performance cars feels as though one of your car mates is behind it. You half expect that each new car will be unveiled in the same way a friend would announce when they’ve bought, made or done something silly. Rather than a pompous PDF press release, you’d get a WhatsApp with a pic and a simple ‘check this out’.

Source: Speedhunters.com