Navistar, Caterpillar Set Vocational Truck Venture
Caterpillar Inc. and Navistar International Corp. said they have agreed to jointly produce a new line of heavy-duty vocational trucks.
The Caterpillar trucks will be for customers in fields from earth moving to mining and road-building, the companies said in a joint statement late Monday.
The trucks will feature “key Caterpillar proprietary components and technology,” the statement said.
They will be built at Navistar’s plant in Garland, Texas, and sold through Caterpillar’s North American dealers.
“We believe this clearly is an opportunity where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts,” said Dee Kapur, President of Navistar’s 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,” he said in a statement.
“The heavy-duty vocational trucks will be purpose-built to complement Caterpillar’s existing product line and will give Caterpillar dealers . . . ability to support customer needs from extraction through delivery,” George Taylor, director and general manager of the Caterpillar’s global on-highway department, said in a statement.
A 50-50 joint venture will also develop and assemble commercial trucks outside of North America and India, initially targeting markets such as Australia, Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa and Turkey, Bloomberg reported, citing a Caterpillar spokeswoman.
Caterpillar said last June it will pull out of the North American Class 8 truck engine market by 2010, except for the Navistar partnership.
