Navistar Readying New Truck Lineup for 2016

[kscarbel2]

Heavy Duty Trucking / October 19, 2015

As Navistar continues to make progress putting the “dark days” of its failed EPA 2010 emissions strategy behind it, the truckmaker will re-brand its product lineup as it rolls out new models starting next year.

In an interview during the American Trucking Associations’ annual Management Conference & Exhibition, Jeff Sass, senior vice president for truck sales and marketing, said he thinks truck sales overall next year will be good for International as well as for the industry overall.

Looking ahead to 2016 expectations, “I think it’s going to be strong,” said Sass, who joined Navistar about four months ago after a 20-year career at Paccar. “It probably won’t be as high [as 2015] in the on highway sector, maybe down 5%. The vocational sector will be flat to up a little bit and we feel medium-duty will be up.”

As far as International trucks specifically, Sass sees "nothing but upside” next year.

“We’ve gained a couple points of [market] share in medium this year, and we plan to gain a couple more points in medium next year. We think we’ll see an uptick in market share for our on highway product as well. and with the introduction of our new vocational product I think we’ll see growth there.”

The new vocational product, which will replace the PayStar, will be unveiled in February during the World of Concrete event in Las Vegas. It is scheduled to start rolling off the line in April, just in time for the construction season.

The “star” nomenclature will be retired in favor of a letter-and-number system. The vocational truck will be referred to as HX, followed by a 3 digit code signifying whether it’s long or short hood and set-forward or set-back axle.

Next up will be a replacement for the ProStar, which will be called the LT series. It’s scheduled to be introduced in a late summer time frame, and will feature the new configurations to meet 2017 greenhouse gas regulations.

The upcoming Class 4/5 product being co-developed with GM also will use the same naming style: CV, for commercial vehicle. The Chevrolet version will have some different styling and a different name.

Why the move to a different naming convention?

“It’s just time,” Sass explained. “We have a chance for rebranding and an opportunity to provide the customer with a new experience with Navistar in their International products.”

[Red Horse]

This is good news that they are moving forward. In the meantime I read something that the SEC has served notice that they are about to whack them with another suit-again based on dealings during the Ustian era. they are not out of the woods yet.

[TeamsterGrrrl]

NAV is in a similar situation to VW, the difference is VW has positive cash flow and huge assets to overcome the current crisis. And being that VW will need those assets, VW won't be the "white night" that rescues NAV.

[DailyDiesel]

Take a look at any new International truck and you will notice they longer leave the factory with model name badges. It's been like that for most of the summer.

[kscarbel2]

International’s new vocational truck to debut in February

Truck News / October 22, 2015

A new International vocational truck, which will replace the PayStar, will be unveiled in February and will start hitting dealer lots in April.

Jeff Sass, senior vice-president, North America truck sales and marketing with Navistar, told Trucknews.com at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition that the new truck will be called the HX series. It will make its debut at World of Concrete and will be available for purchase by April 2016.

The new series will include a full line of options and configurations, including: set-forward axle; set-back axle; long hood, short hood, 13-litre power; 15-litre power, front and rear power take-offs, etc.

“Everything that’s needed for construction and vocational markets,” Sass said. “It’s been a while since we had a full product line, since we shifted to the SCR system.”

The truck has been developed by Navistar, but drawing on “synergies” that existed under its previous alliance with Caterpillar. The truck will feature an aluminum cab and brand new interior. It will replace the PayStar immediately upon its launch.

Sass, who was recruited in June from Paccar, where he spent 20 years serving in 11 roles across five divisions, said he’s been travelling extensively since joining the company, meeting with fleets and dealers in the US and Canada.

One of the products the company has been pushing is its OnCommand Connection remote diagnostics platform. It’s an open architecture system, allowing fleets to monitor all their vehicles – not just International brand trucks.

Sass said the company now has 150,000 trucks covered by OnCommand Connection.

“Only half of them are Internationals,” he said. “We have 23 different telematics providers that have integrated with our OnCommand Connection and we are able to therefore monitor Petes, Kenworths, Freightliners, Volvos – whatever the case is. One fleet just told me they have half Internationals and half another brand, but all of them are on OnCommand Connection.”

Sass said the ability to monitor an entire mixed fleet through one portal is the biggest benefit to fleets and differentiator from other remote diagnostics systems in the market.

Navistar is now looking to bring over-the-air engine reprogramming to its customers, so that engine updates can be done remotely.

“Instead of having to bring the truck into the dealership and get hooked up and do an engine re-flash, we can do that through a WiFi connection at a fleet’s terminal,” Sass said.

That offering is entering the pilot testing stage with select fleets. The goal is to commercialize it in the first quarter of 2016, but Sass said there’s still some work to be done.

“Two things are mission critical with that before we go commercial,” he said. “First is security. We can’t have a 12-year-old in Norfolk, Nebraska on her laptop reprogramming trucks – it has to be secure. Secondly, if you have your truck at a dealership and a software glitch happens, someone is there taking care of it. If we do it over-the-air and it’s in the fleet’s yard, there has to be a 24/7/365 technical support hotline they can call that will have someone on the other end who will know what the fix is, because the last thing we want to have happen is a glitch and not be able to run that truck the next day because no one is there to take care of it.”

Navistar is in the process of building the establishing the tech support and security systems that will address reliability and security. Typically, engines require a couple software updates per year, so fleets will immediately benefit from being able to update their engines without taking their trucks to the dealership.

Over-the-air programming will also reduce congestion at dealer service bays, which should improve throughput.

Further down the road, more spectacular benefits are possible, Sass said.

“In the future, a customer driving from L.A. to Green Bay, Wisc., where you go through the desert, through Vegas, up over the Rockies, and into the plains states – what if we can send them before they take off, a fuel map that optimizes based on its GPS coordinates so that it changes as they head into the Rockies? That way, you can optimize your fuel economy not just of that truck, but for that actual route,” Sass said, noting that capability is still some time away.

Over-the-air reprogramming will initially be offered only on Navistar engines, with Cummins engines added soon after.