With Caterpillar’s announcement this morning that it would begin designing and building vocational trucks on its own, Navistar, Cat’s partner in the work truck business up to this point, has announced plans to launch a new line of trucks once the partnership has officially concluded.
In a brief announcement released alongside Cat’s news, Navistar said it would launch a line of “premium vocational trucks” for the severe service segment in early 2016.
Not shying away from the split, Navistar says the new lineup will leverage “shared technology and intellectual property from its venture with Caterpillar.”
Though specific terms of the split won’t be disclosed, Navistar says the two companies agreed to “leverage certain joint intellectual property, collaborate with suppliers and utilize licensing agreements moving forward.”
“Navistar and Caterpillar have had a strong, collaborative working relationship through a number of projects and partnerships for many, many years,” said Navistar Truck and Parts president Bill Kozek. “This next phase provides Navistar with an exciting opportunity to introduce new technologies and product features into our new line of premium vocational trucks that we’ll launch in 2016.”
Navistar and Cat joined forces in 2008 under a joint venture dubbed NC2 Global. The partnership resulted in the development and launch of three Cat vocational truck models starting with the 2011 release of the CT660, the 2014 release of the CT681 and the release of the CT680 earlier this year.
Cat will take on the design and manufacturing of those trucks and future Cat-branded work trucks and will move production from Escobedo, Mexico to a facility in Victoria, Texas.
