Industry whisperings have gone on for months, but this evening Caterpillar and Navistar International finally spoke up about moving forward with their joint venture. The two companies have announced they will pursue global commercial truck opportunities outside the United States, as well as create a heavy-duty vocational truck line up for North America.
Cat and Navistar first announced their strategic alliance last summer. But it’s been unclear which step they’d take next until now. The companies plan to manufacture and distribute commercial trucks in regions outside of North America and India, with the first product unveilings late in the third quarter of this year. The first possible target markets include Australia, Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa and Turkey.
The new Caterpillar on-highway vocational trucks for North America will be unveiled in late 2010 and will go into full production in early 2011. The trucks will be sold and serviced exclusively by Cat dealers in North America.
The question was posed awhile back – if the companies did pursue a new truck line up – would the trucks be Cat yellow? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.