Navistar banking on MaxxForce growth

WARRENVILLE, Ill. — Navistar International says the rollout of its ‘2010 EPA-compliant’ engine lineup is going well now that the truck and engine maker has shipped more than 7,000 units since June.

"We’re now well into delivery mode … and we are on track to deliver more than 17,000 total vehicles to U.S. and Canadian customers by the end of the quarter," said Jack Allen, president of Navistar’s North American truck group, in a press release.

Across all of its engine platforms, the company is currently building more than 380 engines per day — 85 of those are MaxxForce 13 engines.

Navistar had been installing pre-2010 diesels – many of them Cummins ISX models – it had ordered before the 2010 EPA emissions rules took effect on Jan. 1 2010.

Although they don’t yet meet the EPA’s 2010 NOx standard, Navistar’s advanced EGR MaxxForces are credit assisted certified engines the company is able to sell by using banked emission credits received for selling lower-emissions light and medium duty engines.

As part of the company’s production rate ramp-up, Navistar began producing 2010 model-year engines as early as March.

“As we cycle through our build-and-hold processes, we’ll continue to deliver thousands of vehicles in the weeks ahead as we draw down inventory of completed 2010 vehicles at our manufacturing plants," Allen added.

The company doesn’t yet have a 15-liter engine (a MaxxForce based on the Caterpillar C15 platform is being tested and reportedly on the way) so it’s pushing its "15-liter to 13-liter ‘conversion’ to the big bore crowd.

"We’ve been successful shifting the focus from solely a displacement preference to where we’re demonstrating to customers how they can get the same or better performance in horsepower and torque from our lower displacement, lighter weight and more fuel efficient MaxxForce 13," added Allen.

"In some limited applications, there will continue to be customers that require 15-liter power and we’ll provide that as we introduce our MaxxForce 15. However, as we’re seeing … many fleets can’t deny the economic advantages of a lower displacement engine."