Caterpillar Inc. announced that it will split from its partnership with Navistar and will begin independently designing and manufacturing its own Cat vocational truck family next year.
Navistar has been building the Cat Truck products, based on the International PayStar vocational truck. Navistar said it will introduce its own line of premium vocational trucks in 2016.
“The on-highway vocational truck product family is important to our product line,” said Chris Chadwick, Caterpillar’s director of the Global On-Highway Truck Group. “Customers like our trucks and want to include them in their fleets in a variety of heavy-duty applications such as dump trucks, mixers, haulers or one of the other configurations we offer.
Cat launched its first vocational truck, the CT660, in the North American market in 2011. It has since added two more models the CT681 and the CT680 several months ago.
“We appreciate the collaboration we have had with Navistar,” Chadwick said. “As we look to future launches of new truck models, this updated strategy will better position us to help provide our customers with the best products and services for this market. Caterpillar continues to drive the design phase of all models, both current and planned.
Caterpillar dealers will continue to sell and support the existing line of Cat vocational trucks, the announcement said.
