Company aims to fully import all heavy-duty models to Australia and New Zealand by mid-2022
Iveco said its on a transformation path and announced development of a Customisation & Innovation Centre (CIC) and related changes that will impact its Australian manufacturing arm.
The CIC is a business unit that will leverage Iveco’s local engineering and manufacturing expertise, transforming the company’s focus towards the customisation and innovation of its vehicles for local markets.
The CIC is being developed to “better assist customers and body-builders – particularly those with complex body types – to achieve a more streamlined design and body fitment process for their vehicles”.
Promoting innovation will be another key aspect of the CIC, the company said, with Iveco placed to “work more closely with Europe and local partners to explore areas such as alternative propulsion solutions, digitisation, connectivity and autonomous driving”.
Iveco Australia and New Zealand MD Michael May noted that, by focusing on the CIC, Iveco would strengthen one of its key selling points in the Australian and NZ market.
“Historically, our most unique value proposition has been our ability to customise and specialise vehicles for our market, leveraging the expertise of our local engineering team and the local facility,” May said.
“By further enhancing this continued, we believe there is considerable potential to provide additional value to existing and prospective customers, while growing the CIC’s capacity and scope of work.”
The company advised it would move to fully import its heavy-duty range from Iveco’s advanced manufacturing facility in Madrid, Spain. This transition is anticipated to take place from the end of June.
Iveco currently fully imports its light-duty, medium-duty, selected heavy duty, minibus and off-road models.
“The decision to fully import its heavy-duty range will allow Iveco Trucks Australia to more closely align model year introduction timings with that of its parent company in Europe,” the company said.
“As an example, Iveco will be launching the new S-WAY model in Australia according to the global launch plan.
“The new S-Way model for the Australian and New Zealand market will have undergone thousands of hours and kilometres of validation testing on local roads and highways and had input and development from Iveco’s local engineers and specifically selected customer partners, ensuring it is designed and then tested to meet the needs of its local ANZ market according to the company.”
This will include a further iteration of the dual control ACCO model for the local waste market.
May said the decision to move to local customisation of fully imported vehicles was a “natural progression” of Iveco ’s ANZ transformation.
“Given our brand’s long history of manufacturing in Australia, this next step towards customisation strengthens our ability to remain agile and responsive to demanding regional requirements,” May says.
“This move will also ensure that we are in a position to offer the market the very latest in Iveco performance, comfort and safety innovation, in the most timely fashion, and at the same time, capitalise on our design and validation engineering expertise and customisation capabilities.”
Iveco said that s will continue to engage over the coming month with its employees who may be impacted by the announcement, and will provide appropriate support to the workforce involved.