Caterpillar Inc. and Navistar International Corp. announced Monday they had signed a definitive agreement to produce Caterpillar heavy-duty vocational trucks for sale in North America and had formed a 50/50 joint venture for commercial truck business outside of North America and India. The agreement finalizes a planned alliance announced last June.
The new Caterpillar trucks, to be unveiled in late 2010, will be co-developed by Caterpillar and Navistar and built at Navistar’s Garland, Texas, facility. The trucks will be sold and serviced exclusively through the Caterpillar North American dealer network.
“The heavy-duty vocational trucks will be purpose-built to complement Caterpillar’s existing product line and will give Caterpillar dealers an unmatched ability to support customer needs from extraction through delivery,” said George Taylor, director and general manager of the Caterpillar Global On-Highway Department.
The new Caterpillar trucks are expected to go into production in early 2011 – a timeframe that parallels the expected availability of Navistar’s MaxxForce 15 engine, for which Caterpillar will supply blocks, cranks, heads and other foundation components. Caterpillar announced in June 2008 – simultaneous with the initial announcement of the Navistar strategic alliance – that it will not market its own on-highway heavy-duty diesel engine once the next round of emissions regulations kick in Jan. 1, 2010.
Under the global joint venture, Caterpillar and Navistar will assess individual markets for the development, manufacturing and distribution of commercial trucks, starting with Australia, Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa and Turkey. The companies expect to market both aerodynamic conventional and cabover designs and will be sold under both the Caterpillar and International brands. The first products are expected to be available as early as the third quarter of 2009.
“We believe this clearly is an opportunity where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” said Dee Kapur, president of the Navistar Truck Group. “While Cat and Navistar do not compete in our core businesses, each brings distinctive capabilities to the table and have common goals to expand the base of engine, truck and equipment customers worldwide.”
