Mack to Launch New Flagship Semi in 2025

Mack’s current Class 8 on-highway portfolio comprises the Anthem and Pinnacle models. The Anthem was launched in 2017. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg News)

[Stay on top of transportation news: Get TTNews in your inbox.]

Mack Trucks teased the launch of a new flagship on-highway semi in 2025 on Nov. 14.

Whether the tractor will be an update of Mack’s existing on-highway flagship, the Anthem, or a new model altogether is unclear, but executives indicated upgrades more radical than those seen in January when sister company Volvo Trucks North America relaunched its VNL tractor.

“I really see this for Mack as an industry disrupter,” said Mack Trucks President Stephen Roy. “We go from a product that’s a fairly old product from a foundational standpoint to a premium product that will absolutely allow us to compete in 70% of the market.

“The feedback early has been fantastic from some of our previews,” he told analysts attending Swedish parent company Volvo Group’s Capital Markets Day in Dublin, Va.

“We think we can triple our [longhaul] market share with the new product,” Mack’s top executive said, adding that the new flagship tractor, an expansion of Volvo Group’s North American truck production capacity and the end to supply chain woes would see Mack’s Class 8 market share vault the 10% barrier by 2030.

Mack’s current Class 8 on-highway portfolio comprises the Anthem and Pinnacle models. The Anthem was launched in 2017.

The Anthem is offered in 70-inch stand-up sleeper, 48-inch flat-top sleeper or day cab configurations; comes with 11-liter MP7, 13-liter MP8 or MP 8HE diesel engine options or a Cummins ISX-12N natural gas engine option for the day cab or 48-inch sleeper; and 4x2, 6x2, 6x4, 8x4 and 8x6 as axle choices.

Pinnacle tractors are available in the same cab configurations as the Anthem and a variety of MP8 engine options.

Mack’s last lineup update was its first medium-duty electric vehicle, the MD Electric, introduced in March 2023.

The MD Electric was Mack’s second electric vehicle. The company introduced the Mack LR Electric for refuse applications in December 2021.

Mack returned to the medium-duty market in late 2020 for the first time since 2002 with the MD6 and MD7 models. It launched a refresh in August 2024. Production began in July 2020.

Since the launch of the medium-duty trucks, Mack has won a 5% market share, Roy told analysts. The company currently has about a 6.5% Class 8 market share, but prior to production problems that began in 2019, Mack’s market share historically stood around 8.5%, he said.

The problems went on so long Volvo Group purchased Commercial Vehicle Group’s Kings Mountain, N.C., cab assembly plant, which had been slow in supplying bodies-in-white to Mack.

“Mack has been hampered by supply disturbances of cabs, which resulted in significantly lower volumes than expected,” Volvo Group CEO Martin Lundstedt said during the company’s third-quarter 2024 earnings call.

“Order books for Mack are elevated. So, it is a very high priority to serve our customers on this topic,” he said. “We took it over at the end of [Q3]. By adding resources, and leadership, output will gradually improve here.”

“This has been a tricky situation for quite some time,” he said. “A tricky situation in terms of really getting our arms around it.”

“This is super important for Mack. We have more customers [and] more volumes out there than we — for quite some time now — have been able to execute for Mack. Mack has such a strong position and is deserving more when it comes to the market sales,” said the parent company’s top executive.

Volvo Group paid around $40 million for the Kings Mountain plant, adding 230 employees as a result.

Mack already started to see improvements in total production as a result of the acquisition of the cab plant, said Roy.

Alongside the supply chain stickiness, a six-week strike in October and November 2023 also hampered Mack. The shutdown cost it just more than 1,800 Class 8 vehicles, according to S&P Global Mobility estimates.

Mack is also beefing up the Roanoke Valley plant’s capacity to boost medium-duty output and in April announced plans to build a production facility in Mexico. Mack will win a larger North American market share as a result of the production capacity expansion, Roy said.

Dealers are ready for more Mack trucks, Roy said. “They’ve been pushing us to be honest,” he said, adding: “They’ve invested while we’ve been short on the production side.”

Roy said customers, particularly on the vocational side, are ready for an increase in production too. “Customers still want to buy Mack Trucks. They’re coming to us and saying ‘when can you get the trucks to us’,” he said.

Mack and Volvo Trucks North America are aiming for a combined 25% market share by 2030.