Navistar: Truck Manufacturers Pass on Fuel-Economy Challenge

[kscarbel2]

Transport Topics / August 6, 2015

Navistar said its competitors have declined to participate in a fuel-economy challenge the manufacturer proposed last month to be held at its proving ground in Indiana.

“International Truck has a long history of conducting competitive vehicle testing, and we still believe transparent, head-to-head testing using industry-recognized methodology of similarly spec’d competitive models is the most objective means to benchmark performance. It enables truck manufacturers to design better vehicles and allows customers to make more informed decisions,” the company said in a statement.

The test would have compared fuel economy of each company’s best performing Class 8 truck against Navistar’s International.

The showdown was scheduled to take place at the manufacturer’s new proving grounds in New Carlisle, Indiana, during the week of Aug. 31.

Navistar said that, despite the rejection of its challenge, the company remains confident in the fuel economy and uptime of its current generation of vehicles.

“Testing grounds and proving grounds are great for specific testing of vehicles — for specific performance attributes — but it does not represent the real conditions our trucks run in with our customers,” Diane Hames, Daimler Trucks North America’s general manager of sales and marketing, said July 27 about the challenge.

The test would have been for on-highway sleeper model-year 2016 trucks with only factory-installed options allowed, including hardware, software and fluids.

“We’re all proud of our trucks, and I believe that running our vehicles in an open and transparent forum, side by side, will not only raise the watermark but will also benefit each of our customers in this industry,” Navistar Senior Vice President Jeff Sass previously said in a statement.