Iron Insider: Everything Coming to ConExpo 2026 & How to Make the Most of It

Jordanne Waldschmidt
We’re officially one week out from CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2026 — and this year’s show is going to be massive.
Two thousand exhibitors. Nearly three million square feet of exhibit space. And 150 education sessions.
Vegas isn’t going to know what hit it.

Hey everyone, I’m Jordanne Waldschmidt, and you’re watching The Iron Insider — Equipment World’s all-new show where we break down the data-backed trends shaping the construction industry and fleets of the future.

We’re talking top-selling machines, rental rate movement, and the hottest new product drops — all powered by fresh insights from Fusable’s EDA and EquipmentWatch data and Equipment World’s team of editors.

We'll also bring in experts with real-world, practical advice to help you run more efficiently and make smarter decisions when it comes to buying, selling or renting equipment.

Alright… let’s dive in.

Every three years, the entire industry descends on Las Vegas for one of the biggest construction equipment shows in the world — CONEXPO-CON/AGG.

And from March 3rd through the 7th, myself — and the entire Equipment World team — will be on the ground, covering every major launch and every breakthrough technology.

If you want real-time updates, make sure you’re subscribed at EquipmentWorld.com — and follow us across social media.

Manufacturers are already teasing what’s coming:

2025’s sales leader, Caterpillar, revealed new intelligent, autonomous-ready excavators, dozers, loaders, haul trucks and rollers at CES – and we can’t wait to get a closer look at those machines on the show floor.

And among the more than 30 machines on display at Cat’s Operator Stadium, attendees will see the all-new electric drive medium dozer, 319 excavator, AP10-55 paver and the 150 and 160 motor graders.

Deere and Wirtgen are rolling out 24 all-new machines, along with new digital tools, live demos, and hands-on experiences across a massive 80,000-square-foot indoor and outdoor booth.

You’ll also find 25 tech-packed machines and seven electric and hybrid-electric models.

We got an early look at Deere’s next-gen midsize P-Tier excavators in Arizona - and those roomy new cabs with E-H controls and integrated 2D machine control unlock a whole new level of standard tech. You’re going to want to see these in person.

Develon and sister company Hyundai recently merged, forming parent company HD Construction Equipment. The new company has ambitious goals — targeting $10 billion in sales by 2030, a 95% increase from 2024 – and its betting on its new Dash 9 Series Develon excavators and Hyundai’s next-gen HX Series excavators to drive that growth, especially in North America.

Speaking of new names, Hitachi will also use CONEXPO to kickoff its major rebrand to Landcros. While the name and decals will change, the Landcros machines will keep the same model nomenclature and the brand’s signature “Reliable Orange” color.

Hitachi currently ranks 10th in new financed equipment sales in the U.S., and Hitachi Ltd. says its recent stock selloff affords the construction unit more “independent and self-reliant management” and room to expand its shareholder base.

Komatsu is bringing one of its strongest equipment lineups in years, with several machines making their North American debut.

Highlights include the new PC220LCi-12 and PC365LC-11 excavators, plus an all-new excavator model. The lineup also features the WA475-11 and WA485-11 wheel loaders, two next-generation dozers, the HD605-10 haul truck — and the debut of an all-new articulated truck.

And here’s a big one — we’ve got a strong hunch Kubota is about to drop its largest track loader ever. Dealer videos of the SVL110-3 leaked last fall --- and with the SVL75-3 and SVL97-3 topping EDA’s 2025 new financed sales --- this machine is set up to make a serious splash.

New Holland is making a bold push deeper into construction. The company currently ranks 9th in new financed equipment sales, while sister company Case CE ranks 6th.

New Holland is bringing 15 to 18 machines to the show, including: New D Series mini excavators, a new electric mini track loader and small articulated loaders.

Case will also bring nearly 20 new or upgraded models, including its next-gen N Series dozers, new excavators and wheel loaders, an electric mini track loader, plus an upgraded telematics portal and new 2D and 3D solutions.

And finally, Volvo – in the midst of its biggest launch period ever – will have nearly 20 machines at the show, with 14 of those being new models or first looks.

Several new excavators - including the first compact and wheeled machines in Volvo's latest excavator series - and a new mid-size crawler, will make their show debuts, along with the 60-ton A60 articulated hauler, and 70-ton R70 rigid haul truck.

For more monthly sales breakdowns and the latest products coming to CONEXPO, head on over to EquipmentWorld.com.

Up next - I’m tossing it over to Senior Editor Ben Thorpe and AEM’s John Somers for a deep dive on everything new and notable at the 2026 show.

Ben Thorpe
Jon, great to have you here on The Iron Insider. This will actually be my first kind of expo, so I've got a few questions for myself and for everyone watching. What new technologies and equipment are you going to be most excited to see on the show floor this year?

John Somers
Yeah, so I guess first off, Ben, good to see you. Thanks for thanks for having me, Jared. And appreciate appreciate the invite. And, you know, keeping the news flowing out to this industry. There's a lot, of lot of interesting stuff going on. Kind of in the background and during kind of set up here at AEM, which I'm not as deeply involved with, but always kind of following along.

The madness over the the three years in between shows and how the team pulls it all together. But, I think when, when I hit the ground in Vegas, like, that's when, like, all the really cool stuff happens, right? Because there's all the stuff that the, the, the OEMs kind of hold close, you know, and don't really release.

And sometimes I know some things that I might not maybe you shouldn't know quite ahead of time. But I think there's a few themes going on, you know, at the 2026 show this year, one of them is really going to be like, you know, we've heard from the contractors and the attendees of the show that they really want products and solutions that help their business, like today or tomorrow, right?

Not necessarily concepts that are years out. Of course, it'll be some you can call it like future machines at the show and stuff like that. Right? But a lot of the solutions are new model releases, new configurations, new efficiencies, new safety technology, new automation, you know, different powertrains like electrification or hydrogen, all of that stuff that's basically like here now or will be in the near future.

But yeah, I think if you come back to like those three real kind of trends of this, I think a lot of the equipment and technology that's going to be on display is helping an experienced workforce, you know, whether that's with safety or just efficiency on the job site. A lot of those devices, like safety devices getting integrated more in equipment and then things to help contractors lower their total cost of ownership and just, you know, potentially, you know, impact on the environment and all that.

So it's a it's a lot of stuff that all is kind of intertwined. But yeah it's it's exciting times.

Ben Thorpe
It really is. It's very exciting. Are there any first time exhibitors or any particularly exciting breakthrough machines that you think attendees should look out for at the show this year?

John Somers
Yeah. So there's there's always newcomers, right. And and I think we have, you know, about 2000 different exhibitors covering about 3,000,000 square feet, which is like hard to wrap your head around how big that is. It's hard to really pinpoint specific examples of exhibitors and what they're doing, because there's there's also a difference between companies that haven't typically been in a product space that are launching products.

And a product might just be like, this machine now has a, you know, great control system on it, or different data and different sensors. So it's kind of a new like solution from a typical OEM. And then there's a lot of newcomers in the automation autonomy space. There's a lot of new data players. There's software, you know, for analyzing the wild amount of data coming off equipment.

So there's all of that stuff. Right? I think it's, you know, one of the things I always kind of say is like, figure out what you want to solve for, right? And like what your potential issues on a jobsite are, or whether that's, you know, safety or data or just operational efficiencies. And then, you know, kind of do a little bit of research and look for stuff related to that.

Ben Thorpe
Moving on. And this is something you've already touched on electrification. We're hearing that term a lot. We're we're all talking about AI and automation. We've talked about it before. We're hearing a lot about it again leading up to the show. How are those three trends in particular going to be on display and showing up at this year's kind of expo?

John Somers
Yeah. So I was asked I've been asked a few times over the last month or so what’s going to be the theme of expo this year. If we look back at the 2023 show, there was a lot of battery electric equipment at the show. I think you’ll still see a lot of that, but what’s more interesting is how OEMs are understanding what their customers actually need and building technology around those challenges.

This industry does a really good job of talking to the customer instead of just creating a solution looking for a problem. It’s about taking customer challenges — powertrain, object detection, camera systems, data sensors — and integrating those into the whole machine ecosystem from the ground up.

As for AI, automation and electrification — those buzzwords are everywhere. Electrification is here and has its place, but there will be multiple powertrain technologies in this industry for the foreseeable future: diesel, hydrogen, hydrogen combustion, hydrogen fuel cell and battery electric.

Automation is similar. Are we automating functions of equipment or removing the operator completely? Those are very different things. Function automation — precision, efficiency, using less material — is where the industry is focusing right now. Fully autonomous equipment is coming, but construction job sites are complex and different every time.

AI is becoming a tool to help analyze massive amounts of equipment data faster than humans can. It helps identify things like idle time, maintenance needs and operational improvements.

Ben Thorpe
Fantastic. Great summary. And I think we're all really excited for a lot of that stuff that we're going to see. Diving deeper into the actual on ground experience of this year's show, what are some of the new features, experiences that people are going to encounter that they maybe didn't see three years ago, like demos, hands on zones, those kinds of things?

John Somers
Yeah. The show team does the same thing OEMs do — talk to attendees and exhibitors about what they actually want. Education has always been a big part of the show, with around 150 education sessions across multiple tracks like fleet management, operations and paving.

One new addition is the Groundbreakers Stage — a high-production keynote-style stage featuring presentations from OEMs and solution providers about upcoming technology, partnerships and industry improvements. There will also be short presentations on emerging technologies like AI, autonomy, drones, virtual reality, robotics and workforce training.

There are also workshops focused on helping businesses right now, including the Empower Her workshop, a small business workshop, and the Shop Talks and Walks workshop focused on maintenance, uptime and using data for proactive service.

These include smaller curated group walks around the show floor where experts explain maintenance practices and technologies that help keep equipment running.

There will also be extensive outdoor demos and hands-on equipment experiences across the show grounds.

Ben Thorpe
And there's definitely not a shortage of things to do at the show, especially with the size that we've already discussed here. So when it comes to people, maybe even people who have never been before, what are some of the upgrades that have been made, or maybe some of the tools that are available to help people navigate this massive show?

John Somers
The worst thing someone can do is just show up and start walking. The show is too big for that.

There’s a show planner on the website and a mobile app launching soon that lets attendees search for companies, products and get recommendations based on what they’re interested in.

One of the big values of the show is discovering things you didn’t even know existed. The show floor is organized so related companies are grouped together, making it easier to compare solutions and stay focused in one area.

Ben Thorpe
Well that sounds great, John. That sounds like it’s definitely a show not to just walk into but to plan ahead for. Speaking of planning — if someone only had one day at the show, what should be on their must-see list?

John Somers
First, one day isn’t really enough — the show is five days for a reason. But if someone has limited time, they should prioritize must-see product launches and get to those booths first.

After that, walk around nearby areas and explore booths that might not have been on your radar.

Also talk to people. The exhibitors, engineers and product managers are there to connect with attendees.

Another great tip is listening to conversations with other contractors. Many aren’t direct competitors and are open to sharing insights about equipment, workforce challenges and jobsite solutions.

Ben Thorpe
Yeah. John, thanks again for joining us here today. We all look forward to seeing you and the rest of the industry at the show next week.

So if you want more coverage, more data and more insider interviews, hit subscribe, follow us on social and check out everything at EquipmentWorld.com. Thanks again John.

John Somers
Good deal.