Bidding for a better public transport
Drive your own car or take the public transportation?
For car owners, the answer is a no-brainer: driving one’s own car is much more comfortable plus there are no more unnecessary stops that public utility vehicles make to board passengers or to pay heed to those getting off.
But for those who have been commuting for years, it is much better for them to just sit and leave all the worries—from fighting traffic to looking for a parking slot—to the driver.
Moreover, for these commuters, trusting the public transport also serves a higher purpose: Public transportation produces more than 90 percent less carbon monoxide (CO), more than 90 percent fewer volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nearly half as much carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx)—for every passenger kilometer traveled.
Reason
This brings us to the reason why Isuzu Philippines Corp. recently partnered with local body builder and ISO 9001:2000-certified Centro Manufacturing Corp. to come up with a service-oriented vehicle called the i-Van.
The i-Van is an interesting combination: the platform and drive train of Isuzu’s bestselling NHR light-duty truck and a van-like body designed and built by CMC.
“The i-Van hopes to solve the problems that commuters often face like the uncomfortable seating position and configuration, cramped and unpleasant cabin temperature, and not so easy entryway when getting in or out. With the i-Van, we have created something that hopes to address all these commuting issues and much more. Its overall height of just two meters conforms to the Class I classification of tollways and yet its bulkier body dimension (5 meters long and 1.7 meters wide) makes it spacious enough to accommodate 12, 16 or even 18 passenger seats (or accommodate up to 1.5 tons of load),” explained IPC president Ryoji Yamazaki.
Compared with its van and compact bus competitors, Yamazaki explained that the i-Van offers just the right headroom and legroom for the comfort of its passengers.
He said the i-VAN is the company’s answer to the growing requirements of Filipino entrepreneurs when it comes to transporting people or cargo transport: “While they would be able to seat more passengers, the passengers themselves won’t feel cramped or uncomfortable. If they use the tollways, they would be paying what is usually charged for passenger cars, SUVs and vans.”
2.8L diesel engine
The i-Van is powered by a 2.8-liter, turbo-charged, inter-cooled, direct injection diesel engine. The Euro 2-compliant, five-speed manual drivetrain generates 89 horsepower and 196 Newton-meters of torque, which should be more than enough to haul anyone or anything over long distances.
Yamazaki added that what is more interesting about the i-Van is its fuel-efficiency rating, which in one of the company’s fuel economy drives held last year, found that the NHRm (of which the i-Van is based) is able to log 12.965 kilometers per liter of diesel efficiency rating.
Even before the addition of the i-Van body, the NHR is already designed for comfort and better accommodation: It features a three-point emergency locking retractor seatbelts, power steering, laminated green windshield glass, Isuzu’s Flex Ride suspension (inheriting the soft ride that Isuzu’s Crosswind AUV, D-Max pickup and Alterra SUV have been known for), individual fabric-covered seats, factory-installed air-conditioning system, a four-speaker audio system with an in-dash CD player, and alloy wheels with 225/70 R15 tires.
Yamazaki added that the NHR has been topping the country’s light-duty truck segment since 1999 so buyers could trust the reliability and toughness of this 3.8 ton workhorse.
Confident
For his part, CMC president Raphael Juan said they are so confident in the i-Van’s future sales performance that they invested in an entirely new production line dedicated solely to the i-Van body’s production and assembly.
“The i-Van was designed primarily as a passenger van but we could make an i-Van body that would transform it to a school bus or ambulance. At a price that starts at P1.1 million for the standard van model and up to around P1.5 million for the ambulance variant (which carries the most equipment), the i-Van is an excellent choice over other existing vans in the market,” explained Juan.
Indeed, as the public transport landscape changes, Juan stressed that the need for transport vehicle manufacturers to evolve is very important.
“What we have here is an interesting synergy. We hope that transport groups and even private motorists as well as the commuting public realize how significant this partnership of CMC and Isuzu Philippines. Imagine if we are able replace all the aging jeepneys and AUVs plying our roads today with modern PUVs like the i-Van, definitely more and more Filipinos would elect to just commute,” said Juan.
