Isuzu NPR vs LDV ET60

What's the difference?

Driving a truck of this size has never been easier than it is with these new Isuzus. Once you’ve worked out how to judge gaps in traffic and have acclimatised to the bulk of a light truck, it’s all pretty straight-forward.

The greater levels of connectivity and safety in this generation of trucks is a big leap on the OH and S front, and there’s no trade-off in terms of the traditional practicalities trucks like these offer.

Our advice would be to option up the suspension driver’s seat and, where possible, look into the independent front suspension, too, as this gives the vehicle a more car-like feel in terms of both steering and ride quality.

Meantime, the option of the ready-to-work packages makes the whole idea of getting into a light truck all the more simple, fuss-free and financially attractive. Which are all things fleet managers around the world can agree on.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.

The eT60 presents as an electric vehicle clearly converted from a combustion vehicle to take advantage of being first in our market. 

It comes with some significant downsides, from the lack of key specifications and safety equipment to the downright average drive experience, but in other areas it’s specified right, with decent charging specs, and surprisingly good software on that centre multimedia screen. 

In some ways, these impressions are a reflection of how far the ute market has come in Australia in the last few years, with many commercial offerings now feeling just as complete as passenger cars in terms of specification and driving prowess.

LDV has left open the door for future tweaks and improvements to the eT60’s spec, ride, and features, and we’re keen to get it in for a longer test in the near future. Either way, though, the brand says it has no shortage of buyers lining up to be a part of the zero emissions future of commercial vehicles.

While it’s generally agreed that trucks trail cars and utes in terms of safety and connectivity, the latest N-Series trucks are aimed at reversing that trend. Lots of active safety gear has been added to the N-Series in the most recent upgrade and that’s led to a much safer vehicle.

The ability to connect Apple CarPlay and Android devices is also a major bonus this time around.

The other element unique to Isuzu is the ability for customers to order a fully-finished truck, rather than order the basic package from the truck manufacturer and then finding a third-party supplier for the body they need.

Isuzu calls it its ready-to-work option and it spans various types of bodies including a service body, conventional drop-side tray, enclosed van and even a tipper body. As an off-the-shelf alternative to the traditional way of ordering and specifying a truck, it’s a surprise nobody else has done it, although Isuzu’s volumes definitely play a part.

The eT60 is hard to tell apart from its combustion equivalents from the outside. If you were expecting a blanked-out grille, aerodynamic wheels, or some other special EV-specific design flair, you’ll be surprised to find there are none.

To that end, the eT60 shares the exterior appeal of the combustion range, with a big, tough-looking grille, modern LED DRLs, sturdy looking alloy wheel designs, and enough chunky personality from the wide stance and additional bits like the sidesteps and sports bar.

Peeking underneath reveals the housing for the batteries, notably no spare wheel, and the tray is utilitarian with the spray-in tubliner. At least the ute scores colour-matching bodywork all around.

The same goes for the inside, which certainly feels like a commercial offering. Again, all the items in there mirror its base combustion equivalent, with the only giveaway of its electric nature being the dial-shifter which replaces the lever on the centre console.

The cabin surroundings are largely hard-wearing plastics, including the steering wheel, making the swish touchscreen with surprisingly fast software look somewhat out-of-place.

The analogue dash cluster, for example, looks a bit old-school for an EV, and in terms of look and feel, the T60 generally feels a bit behind the pace compared to its traditionally more expensive rivals.

While it lacks in some areas, though, it is worth something that this dual-cab flies under-the-radar. Fleet operators won’t need to worry about a strange-looking ute with unnecessary frills, and common body panels with combustion versions will make repairs easy, too.

Because they’re made to work first and foremost, the cabins of these 4.5-tonne trucks are roomy and offer plenty of storage space for clipboards, receipt books, Eskies and more.

As a workspace rather than simple transport, plenty of thought has gone into how they function for an eight-hour shift, too, and options like suspension driver’s seats will make a difference.

They’re a bit of a climb up, though, so getting in and out requires at least some measure of dexterity. But once you are in, the view through that huge, panoramic windscreen is fabulous and if you like the seat-height advantage of an SUV, you’ll love an N-Series truck.

Beyond that, the quality of the interior plastics still trails the car and ute world by a margin, and the hard plastic surfaces aren’t great to look at or engage with. By trucks standards, though, they’re on the money.

Your burning question here will be how much the eT60 can tow and haul. With the same suspension set-up as the Pro version, this ute is capable of carrying a 1000kg payload, or tow 1000kg braked.

This is limited, but when you consider its 2300kg kerb weight due to the addition of those batteries, reasonable.

Operators should keep in mind that the 330km driving range is unladen, so you can expect half of that or less when loaded to capacity.

Tray dimensions come in at 1510mm wide (1129 between the arches), 1485mm long, and 530 high. Axle load capacity at the rear is 2100kg, and the eT60 has a GVM of 3300kg.

The approach and departure angles, as well as the clearance are mostly the same as the combustion version, coming in at 27 degrees, 24 degrees, and 187mm respectively.

Technical stuff aside, the cabin is as hard-wearing and practical as you would hope for a working ute, with a total of six cupholders and four bottle holders, a glove compartment, and sunglass holder, two USB 2.0 ports, two 12V outlets, and the welcome addition of a full-size 220V household power outlet.

The synthetic seat trim is so-so for comfort, and the seat bases are quite high, leaving someone at my 182cm height quite close to the roof.

The lack of telescopic adjust for the steering wheel is a shame, but not unusual for products from LDV’s SAIC parent company (this problem is shared with the MG ZS, for example).

The rear seat continues to offer comparatively good space for this segment, even behind my own driving position, although it would be predictably quite tight with three abreast.

As this was a brief test, we can’t tell you what it looks or feels like when loaded up, but the spray-in tubliner is better than offering the eT60 with simply a painted tray, as it’s good-to-go from day one.

The eT60 is expensive. Shockingly expensive. The single variant which will initially arrive in Australia wears a before on-road costs price tag of $92,990.

To put that in perspective, its specification is equivalent to that of the base-model ‘Pro’ combustion version, which now wears a price-tag of $43,148.

Do the math. You could literally have two T60 Max Pros for the same cost as one of these electric versions, given the latter's price premium of $49,842.

To make matters worse, the eT60 is rear-drive only, and with its nearly 90kWh battery pack offers just 330km of driving range, and that’s without being loaded-up.

This price is puzzling for more than one reason, however. For a start, 90kWh of batteries certainly doesn’t cost nearly $50,000 (if you take the average price of a lithium cell per kWh in 2022, the battery should cost closer to $20,000).

In fact, even the electric Mercedes-Benz Vito van with a similarly-sized battery comes in at $85,353 before on-road costs.

To this you could argue many things, but perhaps the most salient point is the fact that big corporate commercial fleets with zero emissions targets are seemingly obliged to pay up given the eT60 has become the only zero-emissions option in the ute space.

Standard gear is mostly shared with the Pro grade of the combustion T60, but there are some real oddities.

Good things include 17-inch alloy wheels and a slick 10.25-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay connectivity, synthetic leather interior trim with six-way electric adjust for the front passengers, LED DRLs, and a sports bar over the tray, which itself has a spray-on tub liner pre-applied, and side-steps to make it easier to hop in and out.

A big bonus is the household-sized 220V power outlet on the back of the centre console, which can be used to power tools and charge devices.

Then things get a bit strange. For example, this is the only fully electric car I’ve ever driven which has a turn-key ignition (as opposed to a push-start system).

It also has an analogue dial cluster, a plastic steering wheel with no telescopic adjust, halogen headlights (in 2022, really?), a manual handbrake, and the example we drove didn’t even have a dedicated park gear. To exit the vehicle, you leave it in drive or neutral, rip the handbrake on, and turn it off. Very odd.

There’s some welcome items here, and it’s also nice that despite LDV’s clear focus on commercial buyers, the eT60 is a dual-cab, so you can actually use it for more than just hauling stuff, but there are just some things (the lack of a park gear in particular) which make it feel a bit pieced together on a tight budget. Rough for a vehicle which costs nearly $100K.

The base engine for the N-Series trucks is a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel with 110kW of power and 375Nm of torque. Available across the short and mid-wheelbase N-Series models, the 3.0-litre engine is more or less the same engine as seen in the Isuzu D-Max ute range.

As such, it has a good reputation for durability and although there are some turbocharger and tuning changes compared with the D-Max, the basic engine is very similar.

There’s also a much more heavy-duty, truck-like engine option. That is also a four-cylinder unit, but with a massive 5.2 litres of capacity, it’s a real statement of intent. Although power is only marginally more than the 3.0-litre engine, at 114kW, torque is the big winner with 419Nm at just 1600rpm.

Typically fitted to N-Series models with the wider cabin, the 5.2-litre engine also shifts the GCM up a gear to 9000kg from 8000kg. The braked towing limit of the bigger-engined truck also jumps to 4500kg (from 4000kg).

The 3.0L trucks are fitted with either a conventional five-speed manual gearbox or a robotised six-speed manual (which operates like an automatic and is driven with just two pedals). The bigger engined versions have a choice of six-speed manual or six-speed robotised manual.

The eT60 is rear-wheel drive only, with an electric motor producing 130kW/310Nm. That’s nowhere near as punchy as the 160kW/500Nm outputs of its punchy twin-turbo 2.0-litre combustion equivalent.

There are three driving modes - 'Power', 'Normal', and 'Eco', and driving performance seems tame. Again, as this was a quick spin in what was described as a pre-production vehicle, we didn’t have a chance to try it out with extra weight in the tray.

Suspension is the same as the combustion T60 Pro, consisting of ‘heavy duty’ coils at the front, and a leaf-sprung set-up in the rear. There are disc brakes all-round.

The first thing to know is that vehicles in this weight class – unlike passenger cars and dual-cab utes - don’t have to undergo an official government test for fuel economy. So there’s no simple comparison to be made here.

Also, there are simply too many variables in truck fuel economy to make definitive statements. Unlike cars which are usually loaded to within a few hundred kilograms trip-to-trip, a truck’s mass can vary enormously from empty to fully loaded (and with what) and those circumstances will vary nearly every day.

Then there’s the issue of what body is fitted to the chassis. Obviously, a high van body will contribute a lot more drag at highway speeds than a low-line tray body.

With all that in mind, it’s impossible to generalise although you can expect fuel economy to increase the more you put on board or hitch to the tow-bar.

It’s also worth mentioning that Isuzu’s N-Series engines meet Euro 5 emissions standard for diesel engines. N-Series trucks have fuel tanks ranging from 75 to 100 litres.

The eT60’s WLTP-rated energy consumption figure comes in at 21.3kWh/100km, which for a passenger car wouldn’t be great, but seems about right for a commercial vehicle of its size and aerodynamics. As already mentioned, this gives it an official driving range of 330km.

LDV says the fleet buyers it has lined up for the eT60 understand its range is “more than adequate for their daily requirements”.

There is some good news on the charging front, with the eT60 being sensibly specified from the factory. The DC charge rate maxes out at 80kW, for a claimed 20-80 per cent charge time of 45 minutes on a compatible charger, while the slower AC charging rate (important for back-to-base operators) is 11kW, meaning a nine-hour 5.0-100 per cent charge time.

On a single-phase charger (maxing out at 7.2kW, but cheaper to install) the 5.0-100 per cent charge time is a claimed 13 hours. Expect more like a 40-hour charge time on a standard wall socket.

Although the sheer size of the Isuzu can be a bit daunting at first, once you’re in with the excellent side mirrors adjusted, it’s vastly less confronting.

The view to the front and sides is brilliant thanks to the deep glass and the high-and-mighty seating position is terrific for finding the corners of the vehicle, too.

You still need to understand that the length of the truck imposes some unconventional lines through corners, and leaving plenty of space between yourself and the insides of corners soon becomes second nature.

The seating position itself offers up a classic truck-like set-up with an upright seat-back and an almost flat steering wheel. It sounds terrible to car drivers but it’s not. It’s actually very comfortable for long stints at the helm.

Ride quality is compromised to an extent by the N-Series’ role as a hauler (and spring rates to suit that role) but the optional independent front suspension makes it a lot more comfy.

And even with the more traditional front suspension fitted, the fast steering makes the truck a lot more manoeuvrable than you might have imagined.

The biggest gripe for us was the transmission, specifically, the optional robotised manual six-speed. This unit really does hark back to the very early days of the technology (before the dual-clutch layout arrived) and the shifts are slow and stilted with a distinct lurch as the transmission swaps gears and engages the clutch.

You can improve things by lifting off the accelerator to initiate each shift, but fundamentally, modern dual-clutch transmissions do a much better job.

The other issue will be for drivers who like to left-foot brake in any vehicle with two pedals.

Unfortunately for them, the Isuzu places both pedals to the right of the big, almost vertical steering column with neatly cleaves the driver’s footwell in two, making left-foot braking impossible.

I said some of the standard equipment on this car is odd. This continues through to the drive experience. Keep in mind that LDV reminded us that there were some pre-production quirks about the vehicle we briefly drove on this launch.

Setting off, the eT60 emits a rather unappealing artificial buzzing sound to alert nearby pedestrians of its presence. While the audible aid is welcome, particularly for a commercial vehicle which may be frequently operating in areas shared with pedestrians, does it have to be so grating?

Even the Mifa 9 electric people mover makes a more appealing science-fiction-inspired noise. Perhaps the eT60’s noise was designed to mirror the tone of a diesel engine?

The seating position leaves a lot to be desired for someone of my height and I would also love to have telescopic wheel adjust, although visibility out of the cab is good all-around, and the reversing camera is relatively high-quality.

Manoeuvring at low-speeds is only tarnished, then, by heavy steering, which annoyingly, also gets a bit vague at higher speeds.

Higher speeds also reveal this ute’s main weakness which appears to be its ride. Keep in mind we’re driving a completely unladen pre-production example. But the ride was harsh, busy, and unsettled in our short drive, which covered a portion of freeway and some bumpy side roads.

The suspension from the combustion T60 Pro appears to struggle with the additional weight of the batteries in the eT60. Harsh bumps were easily transmitted to the cabin, whilst undulations had it jiggling and bouncing around side-to-side.

Power from the electric motor seemed sufficient, but not exciting, with tame acceleration off-the line. The obvious benefit being instantaneous response without the need for a transmission.

It is hard to tell whether the 310Nm on offer will feel too heavily burdened when the ute is loaded up. In some instances, electric motors don’t feel additional heft at all, so stay tuned for a follow-up load test.

Unlike this car’s Mifa 9 or eDeliver 9 relations (which use an electric motor with identical outputs), the eT60 does not have adjustable regenerative braking, with a single strong tune, which cannot even be turned off.

While it is welcome for extending the ute’s range and reducing the stress on the disc brakes, it is not a single-pedal driving mode.

The three driving modes don’t alter the experience much, with the Power mode making the electric motor more responsive, and Eco mode taking the wind out of its sails.

Its maximum speed is limited to 120km/h which is more than can be said for the eDeliver 9 which is limited to 90, a recipe for freeway frustration.

We’re keen to spend more time with the eT60 in the future to better evaluate its range claim and how it deals with more commercial duties. Hopefully it can shape up a little better than it did our quick and less-than-ideal testing environment.

The eT60 lags behind the competition here with a notable lack of active safety equipment, now considered industry-standard.

There’s no auto emergency braking, lane support equipment, active cruise, or blind spot support. Instead, this ute has the standard array of six airbags, electronic stability and traction controls, with the addition of hill start assist, roll movement intervention, and hill descent control.

While combustion versions of the T60 have a five-star ANCAP rating from 2017 (before active items like AEB were considered necessary), don’t expect the same from the eT60.

Because trucks are designed to be used day in, day out, the warranty reflects that. In this case, it’s six years and 250,000km of factory cover for any two-wheel drive N-Series.

The four-wheel-drive variants are, due to the tasks they’re usually put to, covered for three years or 150,000km.

Isuzu also provides six years of roadside assistance. There’s also capped-price servicing on a pay-up-front basis although the cost varies between models. 

Ownership is a better story. The eT60 is offered with an industry competitive five-year/160,000km warranty, with five years and 130,000km of roadside assist. There is also a separate eight-year and 160,000km warranty for the battery (supplied by CATL).

The service intervals might be the most appealing attribute, with the eT60 only needing to visit a workshop once every 24 months or 30,000km.

Even better is the cost, which will set owners back an approximate average of just $145.80 per year for the first 10 years of ownership.