2026 Isuzu D-Max EV – A Proper Day Out in Yorkshire
There's a saying that you never really get to know a vehicle on a press launch.
Give me a full day, decent company, good roads, a couple of green lanes and somewhere that serves fish and mushy pea butties with a pint, and I'll tell you far more about it than any glossy presentation ever could.
That's exactly what happened when my friend Andy – who writes for the Yorkshire Times – mentioned he had Isuzu's new D-Max EV V-Cross on test.
Whether he invited me or whether I invited myself is still up for debate, but either way I found myself heading for Yorkshire with one of the most talked-about new pickups of the year.
Electric pickups are still something of an unknown quantity. Plenty of people have opinions about them, very few have actually driven one, and even fewer have pointed one towards a rocky green lane.
So that's exactly what we did.
We departed Harris Towers with 148 miles range and travelled from Settle to the magnificent Ribblehead Viaduct along the B6479, then turning right onto the B6255, though Hawes, and eventually finding ourselves parked on the peaceful shoreline of Semerwater for photos and a natter.
it’s the law, apparently, when you’re in the area.
Yorkshire has an annoying habit of making every lay-by look like a postcard, and the Isuzu certainly looked at home.
Our first green-lane wasn’t that far away, the other side of Semerwater in fact.
Due to the lack of rain we’ve had, Busk Lane, usually flowing with water, was a mere dribble, but following sections of the dry riverbed it proved that the revised suspension on the EV was a good move. More on that later.
High Lane was our next… lane heading over towards Cray. It isn’t a challenging lane, but it makes up for it with the stunning views.
It reminded me of driving my first EV off-road. It was the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV around the off-road route at Millbrook back in 2014, it was a surreal experience as all could hear was a gentle whir from the motor and the occasional ’ping’ as stones were flicked from the tyres.
Anyway, High Lane. The last section is fairly steep, so we tried Hill Descent which unsurprisingly worked a treat.
Eventually hunger got the better of us, which meant only one destination. The Buck Inn at Buckden.
A fish and mushy pea butty with chips and salad, a pint and half an hour putting the motoring world to rights is, I'm fairly sure, compulsory if you're anywhere near Wharfedale.
Fed and watered, we headed towards one final lane near Litton before reluctantly pointing the Isuzu back towards Harris Towers.
So what's the electric D-Max actually like?
The biggest surprise wasn't that it was electric, it was just how... normal it felt. If you've driven the current diesel D-Max you'll know it's a very capable pickup, but like most ladder-frame commercial vehicles, there's always a little compromise when it's unladen.
The rear can occasionally feel lively over broken roads because it's designed to carry a tonne in the back.
The EV feels noticeably different. A large part of that is almost certainly down to the 66.9kWh battery pack, which pushes kerb weight up to around 2.3 tonnes and lowers the centre of gravity. Isuzu has also replaced the traditional rear leaf springs with a De Dion rear suspension setup designed specifically for the electric model. The result is a pickup that rides with far more composure than I expected.
It's still unmistakably a pickup, but the constant jiggle you often associate with an empty load bed is greatly reduced.
The other thing that stood out was just how refined it is. Without the diesel engine chattering away, you're suddenly aware of how much wind and tyre noise a vehicle generates. Except... there wasn't very much.
Even on faster roads the cabin remained impressively quiet. Conversation was effortless and after a full day behind the wheel neither of us climbed out feeling particularly tired.
Off road? Still an Isuzu.
The good news is that none of the electric bits appear to have diluted the D-Max's character. Despite not having a low-box or lockers, the permanent four-wheel drive, proper low-speed control and instant electric torque make technical sections feel wonderfully smooth. Rather than waiting for a diesel engine to build revs, the motors deliver their shove immediately, making slow, precise progress remarkably easy.
With 3.5-tonne towing capacity and a payload of over a tonne, Isuzu has also managed to retain the commercial credentials buyers expect.
However, there is one compromise.
Actually, two.
The first is ground clearance.
The diesel D-Max offers 230mm beneath the rear axle along with a 22-degree ramp-over angle. The EV sacrifices around 20mm of clearance, dropping to 210mm, while the battery pack hangs beneath the chassis rails. Approach and departure angles remain unchanged at 30.5 and 24.2 degrees respectively, but it's that missing ground clearance which makes itself known on deeply rutted lanes.
Several times we heard the unmistakable scrape of the battery protection underneath as it crossed those diagonal water bars built across green lanes to control erosion.
Nothing dramatic, nothing damaged, but enough to make you wince.
If your off-roading consists of muddy tracks, forestry roads or fields, you'll probably never notice. If, however, you regularly tackle deeply rutted Yorkshire lanes, it's worth remembering that physics doesn't care how clever the drivetrain is.
And then there's the range...
This is the question everyone asks.
Officially, the D-Max EV is capable of up to 163 miles (263km) on the WLTP test cycle. That's perfectly respectable on paper, but as every EV owner knows, official figures and real life aren't always close friends.
Spend a day climbing Yorkshire hills, using four-wheel drive, stopping for photographs, driving green lanes and generally enjoying yourself, and you'll inevitably see less than the brochure suggests.
That said, we left Harris Towers with 148 miles of range, we covered around 85 miles around some of Yorkshire's finest roads and green lanes, and upon return it showed 88 miles left, so I didn’t think that was so bad.
For fleet users working from a depot, utility companies or businesses covering predictable daily mileage, that may not matter in the slightest.
For adventure travellers heading into Scotland, Wales or remote parts of northern England, it becomes something you'll need to plan around rather more carefully than you would with the diesel.
The law
One thing that's worth mentioning, and something that catches plenty of people out, is that, despite the whisper-quiet cabin and the effortless electric drivetrain, you're still driving a commercial vehicle.
Thanks largely to the weight of the battery pack, the D-Max EV tips the scales at over two tonnes unladen. That means it falls under the UK's light commercial vehicle speed limits rather than those for passenger cars. On a single carriageway you're limited to 50mph, on a dual carriageway it's 60mph, and only on motorways can you legally travel at 70mph.
It's no hardship on roads like those around the Yorkshire Dales, where you'd struggle to average 40mph anyway, but it's something worth remembering if you're considering one as a private vehicle. The cabin is so refined and the driving experience so car-like that it's easy to forget you're behind the wheel of something that's still legally classified as a pickup.
Final thoughts
Isuzu deserves credit.
It hasn't built an electric pickup that only works in theory. It still tows 3.5 tonnes. It still carries over a tonne. It still feels like a proper workhorse.
More importantly, it still encouraged us to spend an entire day exploring Yorkshire rather than simply driving from one charging point to another.
Would I buy one over the diesel today?
Probably not.
The reduced ground clearance and relatively modest range would give me pause, especially considering the sort of places I enjoy exploring.
But would I dismiss it simply because it's electric?
Absolutely not.
And that brings us to the price.
Brace yourself…
£74,911 incl VAT.