Navistar Executives Look to the Future
Navistar included all its latest models for test drives at an event at its proving grounds outside of New Carlisle, IN, earlier this week.
Photo: Jack Roberts
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Navistar included all its latest models for test drives at an event at its proving grounds outside of New Carlisle, IN, earlier this week.
Photo: Jack Roberts
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NEW CARLISLE, IN – Backed by a new family of products and a robust economy, Navistar executives are clearly feeling positive about the future.
“We have [introduced] a lot of new products in the last two years, and we got a lot of new products coming in the next two,” said Denny Mooney, senior vice president – product development, during a briefing to industry media.
Those new products include the LT linehaul tractor, its RH regional hauling counterpart introduced at the Expocam trade show in Montreal, the heavy vocational HX tractor launched last year to replace the PayStar, and the new HV that replaces the WorkStar. The HV was unveiled at the recent North American Commercial Vehicle Show in Atlanta, Georgia.
The HX itself represents a market segment that Navistar saw drop in half after it stopped producing 15-liter engines. “Our [13-liter model], because it was an EGR engine, we couldn’t cool it at some of the power and torque ratings we needed,” he said.
A little over five years later, though, Navistar says it’s back in the business. “We’re picking up share,” Mooney said, noting that three HX models were entirely new entries in the marketplace. “In the vocational segment, if you don’t have the features, if you don’t have the power and torque, they’re not buying the truck,” he said.
Heavy vocational trucks represent a relatively small market compared to the sales volumes of linehaul tractors, but the segment is growing on news of booming construction and even improving sales in the oil and gas sector.
“It’s not a share play. It’s more of a profit play. These are high-margin trucks. The volumes are way higher in …Read the rest of this story
