Medium-duty trucks

Early units of new Mack MD Series medium-duty trucks are coming together in a former comic book publishing factory near Roanoke, Virginia.

Mack Trucks and Volvo Trucks North America are cutting 450 salaried jobs as part of parent Volvo Group’s slashing of 4,100 whiite-collar positions. But Mack is holding the line for now against additional reductions in
production workers in Pennsylvania.

Preliminary orders for Class 8 trucks in June rebounded to a four-month high, following a rapid improvement in freight rates.

Growing competition leads Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp. to decide against selling medium-duty trucks in the U.S. and Canada after current inventory is sold. Parts and service pledged through 2028.

In a peak demand year for Class 8 tractors, high-powered engines dominated under the hood, but even a new heavy-haul transmission from Eaton and Cummins doesn’t affect an accelerating trend toward smaller displacement as tougher emissions standards loom.

Isuzu continues to invest in its medium-duty truck lineup, adding two new gas engines for its Class 3-5 models, giving users more power choices.

Rather than talk about the proposed TRATON buyout of the company — the elephant in the room — Navistar executives unpacked reasons behind the disappointing first fiscal quarter they had predicted.

Orders for Mack Trucks new MD Series Class 6-7 trucks are starting off strong, company officials said, during the first public unveiling of the trucks at the Work Truck Show

Engine maker Cummins already was predicting a difficult 2020 before the outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, where Cummins’ manufacturing operations are shuttered.

Mack likes the stability of the medium-duty truck market, where it can sell small trucks to current customers without the dizzying ups and downs of the Class 8 market.

Mack is back in medium-duty trucks with its first offering in two decades coming this summer from a new plant near Roanoke, Virginia.

Kenworth and Peterbilt will both put power electronics from Dana in their electric medium-duty trucks.

Navistar will cut 10% of its worldwide workforce even as it gained market share for the third consecutive year.

Navistar is skipping the chase for incentives on demonstration electric trucks to consult with customers on custom-built zero-emission medium-duty models with total cost of ownership rivaling a diesel truck.

Hino’s XL Series of trucks will receive new cab configurations for 2021. The brand has renamed several of its trucks and added a host of new features in all its classes.

Preliminary September orders for Class 8 trucks improved over August but remained stagnant as fleets delayed booking new equipment in the face of ongoing trade tensions slowing swaths of the manufacturing economy.

The concept of customer experience has been around for decades but it is getting new emphasis in trucking as electric and autonomous technology arrives.

Navistar is the first to slow production lines for new trucks. It is targeting medium-duty units because inventories are up 30 percent year over year.

Mitsubishi Fuso said that customers are demanding more gasoline models in medium-duty operations, so it is delivering with this Class 5 gas-powered cabover.

UPS’ Carlton Rose, president of global fleet maintenance and engineering, said he expects electric power to be the long-term solution in medium-duty, but it isn’t there just yet.