Most of Australia’s most popular utes are produced in Thailand and the Ford Ranger is the only ute developed from scratch here, but Australians now have access to a new off-road tough-truck that was conceived, designed, engineered and at least partly manufactured locally – the 2025 Isuzu D-Max Blade.
Though Isuzu is a Japanese brand and the D-Max is made in Thailand, it was Isuzu Ute Australia (IUA) that first pitched the idea of developing a beefed-up, factory-backed ute specifically for the local market.
Walkinshaw Automotive Group – based in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton – was contracted to design, develop and build the the modified D-Max for IUA, with blessing of Isuzu head office in Japan, and the new D-Max Blade is now ready for its market release late next week.
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IUA PR manager Mark Harman says the brand was keen on developing a model “unique to the Australian market”, and Walkinshaw was the ideal local company to make that happen.
“[If it was global project] it wouldn’t be as unique, because then it would be across every single market. What we were looking for was something unique to the Australian market,” he said.
“Something completely Australian, bespoke to our climate here, but also the roads and the terrain here as well. That’s why we had to go local, because we could a better job here with a local manufacturer.”
Walkinshaw’s additions include new suspension developed in-house, new 17-inch alloy wheels wrapped in chunky Goodyear all-terrain tyres, and various pieces of off-road gear like a front light bar, bash plate, side steps, and a new one-piece sports bar at the rear.
As with the Nissan Navara Pro-4X Warrior and Toyota HiLux Rogue, the Blade brings an increased ride height and track width, but retains its donor model’s four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine, in this case the same 140kW/450Nm 3.0-litre oil-burner as the D-Max LS-U+ on which it’s based.
Walkinshaw says its development program included more than 100,000km of testing on Australian roads, including a multi-day return trip from Clayton to Broken Hill and Adelaide.
The Blade is the latest in a long list of dual-cab 4×4 utes modified and produced by Walkinshaw, following the now-discontinued Holden Colorado SportsCat, Volkswagen Amarok W-Series and Mitsubishi Triton Xtreme, and ongoing right-hand drive conversions of full-size US pickups from Ram, Chevrolet, and Toyota.
Mr Harman said that while there was engineering and commercial sign-off from Isuzu overseas, it was important to keep the Blade project local.
“We have had conversations with Japan and with Thailand to ensure that, yes, it can be done, but capitalising on [Walkinshaw’s] experience, their local expertise is key,” he said.
“They are here on the ground. They’re here to perfect the vehicle, so it’s really about capitalising on their experience and expertise to bring this to life, and no-one could do a better job than what Walkinshaw could do for us,” he said.
The Blade is IUA’s first direct rival for the Rogue and Warrior, and the Australian-developed Ranger Wildtrak sold globally. All four off-roaders come with their manufacturers’ standard warranty – five years, unlimited-kilometres for the Toyota, Nissan and Ford, six years and 150,000km for the Isuzu.
First released in 2021, the Warrior was developed and built by Premcar, another local automotive engineering company based in Melbourne (Epping) and features a bigger suspension lift than both the Rogue and Blade, as well as the availability of a manual transmission and a cheaper SL Warrior variant.
The Rogue was launched in 2022 – the same year as the new-generation Ranger/Wildtrak – following a regional development program that included input from Toyota Australia’s local engineering group, with modifications applied on the production line in Thailand.
There are other market-specific D-Max tough-trucks officially available overseas, notably the D-Max Arctic Trucks AT35. It’s based on a current-generation (but pre-MY24 facelift) model and features larger all-terrain tyres, sturdier side steps, and wide fender flares.
Arctic Trucks is based in Iceland, with operations in various other countries like the United Kingdom, where the D-Max AT35 has been on sale since 2016.
If the name sounds familiar, Arctic Trucks was responsible for the modified Toyota HiLux featured in Top Gear’s 2007 Polar Special.
Isuzu D-Max Arctic Trucks AT35
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