Freightliner to Offer Test Trucks With Cat Engines This Month

aimlerChrysler’s Truck Group said it expects to begin providing some customers with test models of its 2007 Freightliner trucks equipped with Caterpillar engines by the end of this month.

The announcement comes in the wake of statements by the truck group’s leader, Andreas Renschler, that Caterpillar’s engine development was far behind schedule and that “Cat’s ’07 engines don’t work.” (Click here for previous coverage.)

DaimlerChrysler said Renschler’s remarks — from an interview with Transport Topics at the Hanover Commercial Vehicles Show in Germany last month — “were taken out of context...and do not accurately convey the company’s most recent views” regarding Caterpillar’s engines.