Caterpillar goes solo with vocational trucks

Navistar Auspac says the local Cat brand will not be affected by the Caterpillar and Navistar split in the US

 

Caterpillar’s decision to split its vocational truck business from Navistar in the US will have no bearing on the local supply of Cat-branded trucks, Navistar Auspac has confirmed.

The announcement comes in the wake of news from Caterpillar in North America, which says it will independently design and manufacture its vocational truck range at a facility it opened in Texas in 2012.

“The Cat-branded trucks supplied to Australian, New Zealand and Pacific markets are completely different models to the Cat vocational range which is a uniquely Caterpillar product,” Navistar Auspacs’s sales director Glen Sharman says.

“The Cat trucks we offer here are developed specifically for our on-highway markets.

“Cat trucks are a valuable and ongoing part of Navistar Auspac’s plans for today and tomorrow and any assumptions or speculation otherwise are completely mistaken.”

Announcing the change the director of Caterpillar’s global on-highway truck group Chris Chadwick said the strategy wouldl facilitate growth in the vocational truck industry.

“The on-highway vocational truck product family is important to our product line; customers like our trucks and want to include them in their fleets in a variety of heavy duty applications such as dump trucks, mixers, haulers or one of the other configurations we offer,” Chadwick says.

“To continue to provide the best solution for our customers, we will bring the design and manufacturing of this product into Caterpillar.”

The move, which will not impact on the facility’s production of excavators, is expected to create 200 jobs and begin work in the first half of 2016.

“We appreciate the collaboration we have had with Navistar,” Chadwick says. “As we look to future launches of new truck models, this updated strategy will better position us to help provide our customers with the best products and services for this market.”

Caterpillar and Navistar collaborated on the three vocational trucks produced with the Caterpillar badge since 2011.

The CT660, CT680 and CT681 models were designed and built by Navistar in a manufacturing facility in Escobedo, Mexico.

Vocational trucks produced by Caterpillar into the future will continue to utilise the CT13 engine that Navistar produces.

 

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