Iveco Australia is preparing to end full local manufacturing at its Dandenong plant in Melbourne from mid-2022 in a move which also impacts the New Zealand market.
In announcing the move last year, the company said it would move to fully import its heavy duty range from Iveco’s advanced manufacturing facility in Madrid, Spain by the end of June 2022.
It marks the end of production at the Dandenong facility where the first ever locally-designed and built truck rolled-off the manufacturing plant in 1952. When it opened it represented a significant investment in the Australian truck industry.
Iveco says the move is part of a “global transformation process” and will form a new Customisation & Innovation Centre (CIC) in its place for the Australian and New Zealand markets.
The company says the CIC is being developed to better assist Iveco customers and body-builders, particularly those with complex body types.
Iveco says it will work more closely with Europe and local partners to explore areas such as alternative propulsion solutions, digitisation, connectivity and autonomous driving.
In commenting on the new initiative, Iveco Australia and New Zealand managing director Michael May says that by focusing on the CIC, Iveco would strengthen one of its key selling points in the Australian and NZ market.
“Historically, our most unique value proposition has been our ability to customise and specialise vehicles for our market, leveraging the expertise of our local engineering team and the local facility.
“By further enhancing this service, we believe there is considerable potential to provide additional value to existing and prospective customers, while growing the CIC’s capacity and scope of work,” he says.
Iveco currently fully imports its light duty, medium duty, selected heavy duty, minibus and off-road models.
The decision to fully import its heavy duty range will allow Iveco Trucks Australia to more closely align model year introduction timings with that of its parent company in Europe, it says.
As an example, Iveco will be launching the new S-WAY model in Australia according to the global launch plan.
The new S-WAY model for the Australian and New Zealand market will undergo thousands of hours and kilometres of validation testing on local roads and highways. It will include input and development from Iveco’s local engineers and specifically selected customer partners, ensuring it is designed and then tested to meet the needs of the local markets.
It will include a further iteration of the dual control ACCO model for the local waste market.
May says the decision to move to local customisation of fully imported vehicles was a natural progression of Iveco’s Australia and New Zealand transformation.
“Given our brand’s long history of manufacturing in Australia, this next step towards customisation strengthens our ability to remain agile and responsive to demanding regional requirements,” he says.
“This move will also ensure that we are in a position to offer the market the very latest in Iveco performance, comfort and safety innovation, in the most timely fashion, and at the same time, capitalise on our design and validation engineering expertise and customisation capabilities.”
