After selling off all of its truck businesses during the past two decades it appears once great US automotive giant General Motors has fallen back in love with commercial vehicles announcing yet another joint venture with a specialist truck manufacturer.
Just two months after GM announced it would be marketing Isuzu’s N Series badged as Chevrolet trucks in the States, it has announced it has signed a deal with Navistar to jointly develop and assemble medium-duty commercial vehicles which will also be sold under the Chevy brand.
GM says the agreement will help boost its Chevrolet commercial truck business.
“It strengthens Chevrolet’s brand providing commercial customers with more choices and one-stop shopping for a versatile lineup of trucks, vans and crossovers,” said GM’s Ed Peper, GM’s U.S. vice president of fleet and commercial sales.
The future products will be jointly developed using Navistar’s chassis configurations and manufacturing capabilities, GM ‘s commercial components and engines.
Production will begin in 2018 at Navistar’s plant in Springfield, Ohio and Navistar said it would invest more than $12 million to upgrade the factory and equipment.
The companies did not disclose specific terms of the agreement.
Navistar’s president of trucks and parts Bill Kozek said the deal with GM will help Navistar enhance its medium-duty product portfolio and leverage its scale and expertise in manufacturing medium-duty trucks.
According to the report by Reuters, Navistar continues to work to recover from the series of costly management decisions from the past including its costly and ultimately unsuccessful proprietary emission-reduction system.
The emissions-related debacle sent Navistar’s warranty expenses skyrocketing as sales tumbled.
Earlier this month, Navistar posted its 12th consecutive quarterly loss, but executives said ongoing restructuring actions would help the company become profitable and have positive cash flow in 2016.
