Iveco has officially begun production of the Stralis AT at its Dandenong facility in Melbourne.
The “I” nomenclature has now been dropped, signifying the Stralis is no longer a fully imported truck and is built with Aussie hands.
It’s the second Stralis model to be made locally, along with the famous ACCO garbage and concrete mixer platform now celebrating 40 years, and the Delta and Metro bus chassis models.
Parts such as door mirrors, wheel angles, trailer connections, wheels, batteries and even fluids are now all sourced within Australia.
Iveco favours the economies of scale that come with full-scale manufacturing, saying it offers a better business case and means more work for employees on the assembly line.
For Iveco customers, it means shorter lead times from order to dealer delivery.
Other benefits include investment in the Dandenong facility itself, including upgraded tooling and vehicle software calibration for systems such as adaptive cruise control and lane departure systems, which will help curtail heavy vehicle safety concerns within the Australian industry.
In-house collision avoidance suites will also help with future technology innovations to be developed, made and fitted to locally made trucks.
Euro-6 emissions-compliant Cursor engines in Stralis AT and AS-L models will also require the involvement of Australian Iveco engineers during the installation process and will further bolster the company’s motto Your partner for sustainable transport.
With local engine work comes at least 300,000km per model of compliance and durability testing for Australian-focused tuning and validation in environments customers are likely to drive in, day-in day-out.
Iveco engineers analyse 600,000km of testing data each week and test-sample truck fluids every 25,000km. The testing is performed in conjunction with Fiat Powertrain, with telematics systems recording information half a world away.
Iveco Australia marketing manager Darren Swenson says upping local production and development proves the company’s commitment to Australian manufacturing and engineering.
“Iveco is one of few truck brands that continue to manufacture here,” he says.
“The addition of Stralis AT variants to local production, along with the validation of new power plants and other initiatives, is not only great news for the local workforce and our third party parts suppliers but also Australian truck buyers who can further reap the benefits that locally manufactured vehicles provide.”
Iveco says the local support and investment are a testament to parent company CNH Industrial’s commitment to Australia.
