Isuzu began life in 1916 as the Tokyo Gas Company. The automobile making arm was renamed Isuzu after the Isuzu River in Japan.
The company now concentrates mainly on commercial vehicles, including heavy trucks, and diesel engines. Isuzu still sells a limited number of passenger car models in Japan, rebadged from other local marques, but until the 1980s and 1990s, the company developed its own models either in-house or in collaboration with others, mainly GM.
