NEW MODEL DEVELOPMENT

Masami (Mat) Ozono is a proud Japanese man who for more than 40 years has inched his way up the ladder of executive engineering appointments at UD.

Fortunately for me, his English is good and more fortunately for UD and its leagues of customers, his experience and passion for the brand are profound. Even better, and somewhat outside the square of standard Japanese response, he doesn’t appear at all shy about delivering a sharp answer to a blunt question.

Anyway, as senior manager of product management and planning, Ozono has been at the pointy end of UD’s Croner development program since the decision was taken in 2013 to design and build a replacement for the brand’s long-serving Condor medium-duty range.

In a surprising development, however, it eventually became apparent that Croner would not replace Condor in every market. In fact, the new model would be built in Volvo Group’s Thailand factory and specifically designed for what are broadly termed ‘emerging markets’ in Asia, the Middle East, South America and Africa.

But, it would not supersede Condor in UD’s heartland – Japan! Instead, UD executive heavyweights did an unusual deal with arch-rival Isuzu to replace Condor in the Japanese market with a largely badge-engineered medium-duty model from its opponent’s stable, much as it had already done with Mitsubishi Fuso in Japan’s light-duty market.

Largely responsible for ensuring