An announcement by Caterpillar that it will begin independently designing and manufacturing its vocational truck range at a Texas plant will not impact the supply of Cat branded trucks in Australia, New Zealand and Pacific markets says distributor Navistar Auspac.
Caterpillar launched its first vocational truck, the CT660, in North America in 2011, built by Navistar.
Caterpillar’s announcement in the US concerns Cat’s North America vocational truck range which is available in left hand-drive configuration only, and was never introduced to the Australian, New Zealand and Pacific markets.
“The Cat-branded trucks supplied to Australian, New Zealand and Pacific markets are completely different models to the Cat vocational range which is a uniquely Caterpillar product,” says Navistar Auspac sales, marketing and business development director Glen Sharman.
“The Cat trucks we offer here are developed specifically for our on-highway markets.
“The Cat Trucks range has evolved since the Australian launch in 2010 with models such as the CT630S, the CT630SC and most recently the CT630HD rated for road train applications.
“Navistar certainly wouldn’t be investing in development of these models if it saw anything other than a long and strong future for Cat-branded trucks in our markets,” says Sharman.
“Cat trucks are a valuable and ongoing part of Navistar Auspac’s plans for today and tomorrow and any assumptions or speculation otherwise are completely mistaken.
Caterpillar truck representatives in the US say they will continue to source Cat-branded engines such as the CT13 that Navistar builds to power Caterpillar vocational trucks and the CT610 on-highway model in the Navistar Auspac range.
“The CT13 engine you see in the Caterpillar truck will continue to be available in the (vocational) truck,” says Caterpillar Trucks product manager David Schmitz.
Speculation that Cat’s durable 15-litre engine has a limited future has been refuted by Caterpillar.
“Earlier this year we mentioned that we will have a 15-litre announcement later this year and it is still on track,” says Schmitz. “The 15-litre engine is key to future growth.”
