Isuzu Australia Limited (IAL) has promoted Matt Sakhaie to product division chief in preparation for an all-new vehicle range that begins arriving in 2025.
He joined the brand’s executive team after joining IAL in 2010. Sakhaie brings experience across Isuzu’s broader engineering division, the off-highway Isuzu Power Solutions team and most recently, the brand-wide product portfolio.
Sakhaie now leads IAL’s growing product division. Its remit includes both product development and homologation engineering and in-house, second-stage manufacturing at IAL’s Melbourne-based product development centre (PDC) and Isuzu production centre (IPC).
“We deliver a huge range of truck models and variants to a diverse range of customers across light, medium and heavy-duty requirements,” IAL director and chief operating officer Andrew Harbison says.
“It’s a task we expect to become increasingly more complex in the coming years. In this respect, Matt’s experience of the industry and IAL’s business is invaluable, and his promotion reflects this.
“IAL has built a reputation for offering a road transport solution for every trade application, industry or sector in the Australian market. This is not only due to having an extensive model line-up but also engineering and technical teams that are constantly developing solutions to ensure customers get the right tool for the job.
“In 2025, Isuzu will bring its first all-new model line-up to the Australian market since 2008. This has required Matt and the product division to engage closely with our parent company in Japan and the wider customer network to ensure the right model mix will be heading our way,” he says.
Sakhaie says the new Isuzu range represents a significant change. However, the philosophy of delivering on customers’ needs remains the same.
“Isuzu has embraced the future of change with a commitment to supply a product range which offers operators compelling features and functionality, including advanced safety systems, more innovative and more efficient powertrains and ergonomic enhancements,” Sakhaie says.
“We are also proactively working with our parent company, Isuzu Motors Japan, in the market development of fuel-agnostic powertrain platforms, including battery electric vehicles (BEV) and fuel cell vehicles (FCV).
“To address the increasingly complex customer and regulatory requirements, IAL has recently enhanced the product team, including appointing product managers, each responsible for the lifecycle management of specific model ranges.
“This level of knowledge ensures that our portfolio of products continues to meet our customer’s needs and we maintain a superior solution offering compared to our competitors.
“The other crucial part is our in-house production capability or second-stage manufacturing. This function adds significant value to our product line-up,” he says.
