kscarbel2

Ringing in #February2020 w/ this beautiful photo of City of Green Bay #Autocar #ACX Labrie Enviroquip Group #ASL. We appreciate the opportunity to serve #GreenBay! Always Up - Autocar Trucks .

Our #WOC2020 booth is just about ready! Thanks to our partners Allison Transmission Cummins Inc. & Stertil-Koni USA Inc. Visit us in booth C6661 World of Concrete Beck Industrial #Autocar #dieselconventionalcab #concretemixer #LVCC #AlwaysUp #uptime #ROI #itsallabouttheuptime

In my mind, there's quite a variety of Class 6 and 7 truck types here, from the refined Kenworth and Peterbilt to the low price F-650. And we haven't mentioned cabovers.....the 5.2-litre 4-cylinder Isuzu FTR/Chevrolet 6500XD is a strong choice, with it's fuel economy, visibility, maneuverability and ease of maintenance. I regret they don't offer the 4-door crew cab in the US market. And then we have the conventional cab (bonneted) Hino AL Series in Class 6 and 7 (the new XL is also available in Class 7 but is substantially more expensive). https://www.chevrolet.com/commercial/low-cab-forward-cab-over-truck https://www.isuzucv.com/en/fseries/index https://www.hino.com/hino-trucks.html

Hino's are the best that Japan Inc. has to offer, as wealthy parent Toyota has the most money to spend on R&D. Isuzu makes a solid truck, as we all know, and represents the best value play from Japan. The T270/370 cab as you said has the best fit and finish (build quality). The cab is smaller, but not too small and cramped in my opinion. The Mack brand is way too late to the party. I can only see this being successful if they had brought a game-changing new design. And being the last one to the party gave them the opportunity to trump the known competition with a better mouse trap. However, I'm just not seeing that here. This is a "me too" product that brings nothing new to the table. So in an overcrowded truck segment with razor thin margins, what was the point of this exercise? It's not like Mack brand dealers were demanding it, much less asking for it. They weren't. They all long ago took on other franchises to meet the Class 6/7 demand due to a lack of product from Volvo.

It’s move-in day at #WOC2020! This #Autocar DC-64M diesel #conventionalcab Beck Industrial #concretemixer is definitely the best looking truck in the #LVCC. Visit us in booth C6661. World of Concrete #AlwaysUp #uptime #ROI #itsallabouttheuptime .

To me, Kenworth's Cummins ISB-powered T270/370 is the Class 6/7 with the highest level of refinement. Plus there's the Class 5 T170. And the same goes for Peterbilt's Class 6 Model 330 and Class 7 Model 337. And Peterbilt also offers the Class 5 Model 325. Freightliner's M2, available with the Cummins ISB, is not a low quality truck. The high-roof crew cab is selling well. But with up to 50 percent market share, Daimler has the economy of scale/sales volume to sell them at the most competitive prices in the industry and meaningfully profit. International's Cummins ISB-powered MV (formerly Durastar/4300), though aging, remains popular via pricing and competitive in specs. And then you have Ford. Nobody can touch Ford's price on the Class 6 F-650. But with the Power Stroke / 6R140 6-speed tranny combination, it doesn't appeal to everyone including many fleets and municipalities. It does however have the gasoline 7.3-litre engine and crew cab availability going for it. It seems the Class 7 F-750 can't gain a following without the Cummins ISB/Allison option that many Class 7 operators like. https://www.kenworth.com/trucks/t170-t270-t370/ https://www.peterbilt.com/trucks/medium-duty https://freightliner.com/trucks/m2-106/ https://www.internationaltrucks.com/trucks/mv-series https://www.ford.com/commercial-trucks/f650-f750/

Arrival is airborne.

Financial Times / January 29, 2020 UK electric-van maker Arrival has received an order for up to 20,000 custom delivery vehicles from UPS in a deal worth hundreds of millions to the British start-up. UPS has ordered 10,000 purpose-built vans to be rolled out between 2020 and 2024, with the option to purchase another 10,000 in 2023. The vans will be produced at Arrival’s production sites in the UK in Bicester and Banbury, as well as a new plant in Reading, one in the US in New Jersey and another site in mainland Europe. Deliveries of the first vehicles will begin later this year. The orders are a further boost to the group, which has been a bright spot in a UK car industry struggling with falling output amid lower sales because of trading uncertainty following Brexit. The order comes a week after the company received €100m from Hyundai and Kia [US$132 million], valuing the start-up at €3bn [US$3.961 billion] and providing capital for the business to expand. The first generation of Arrival vans were existing conventional vehicles retrofitted with battery electric technology and used by companies including Royal Mail and BT. Its new generation of models have been designed from scratch and use a flexible skateboard-style base, or chassis, for battery vehicles that can be used to make large vans or smaller cars. Its production method allows the business to use a network of “microfactories”, which can make tens of thousands of vehicles, producing cars flexibly in several locations, rather than relying on the large facilities used by traditional manufacturers. The production centres employ about 40 to 100 people. UPS and Arrival have been working together since 2016 to develop the new vehicle based on the skateboard platform. The delivery group has also invested tens of millions of euros into Arrival, which has been seeking new investors to help fuel its growth plans. Arrival has about 400 employees in the UK, as well as 400 others across the world. Denis Sverdlov, founder and chief executive of Arrival, said: “UPS has been a strong strategic partner of Arrival, providing valuable insight to how electric delivery vans are used on the road and how they can be optimised for drivers. “Together our teams have been creating bespoke electric vehicles, based on our flexible skateboard platforms, that meet the needs of UPS from driving, loading and unloading, depot and back-office operations.” Juan Perez, chief information and engineering officer at UPS, said: “We recognise the need to work with partners around the world to solve both road congestion and pollution challenges for our customers and the communities we serve. “Electric vehicles form a cornerstone to our sustainable urban delivery strategies. Taking an active investment role in Arrival enables UPS to collaborate in the design and production of the world’s most advanced electric delivery vehicles.” .

Now (a day after the launch), the info-less MD Series video has been put on the Mack brand YouTube site. .

#Autocar is heading to Las Vegas for World of Concrete 2020! Come check out our ACX low cab forward and all-new DC-64 conventional cab vocational models. February 4-7 in booth #C6661 at the #LVCC. Always Up - Autocar Trucks .

A thousand pardons for not reporting this last year. When the former Mack Trucks opened its Winnsboro, South Carolina plant in August 1987, it required that many vendors build nearby plants within 100 miles. CVG chose Kings Mountain, North Carolina as a production location, just south of Gastonia and Charlotte off I-85, some 90 miles away.

CVG Press Release / March 19, 2019 NEW ALBANY, Ohio/PRNewswire/ -- Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (CVG) (NASDAQ: CVGI) announced that its Kings Mountain Manufacturing facility has produced its 500,000th Mack cab. The facility achieved the half million milestone on March 1 when the Mack C Series cab rolled off the production line. CVG's Kings Mountain facility, which employs 184 people, manufactures Mack sheet metal cab structures for Volvo Group using a variety of production processes including spot welding, MIG welding, assembly, sealing adhesive application, and E-Coat. "The Kings Mountain facility, and the customers and employees it supports, is an important part of our global manufacturing network," said Dale McKillop, Senior Vice President and Managing Director for Trim, Wipers and Structures. "I am thrilled to celebrate this milestone achievement with the team and look forward to marking additional production milestones in the future." Kings Mountain employees, along with company officials and community leaders, gathered in the facility this week to celebrate the production milestone. The event included lunch, a formal unveiling of the cab, and an opportunity for the employees to permanently affix their name or initials on the cab. Plant Manager Shelby Evans offered his congratulations to the facility. "I am proud of the entire Kings Mountain team for this production milestone. The finished cab will be displayed at our Kings Mountain facility as a reminder of this legacy achievement and our ongoing commitment to quality products and service." About Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. (through its subsidiaries) is a leading supplier of electrical wire harnesses, seating systems, and a full range of other cab related products for the global commercial vehicle markets, including the medium- and heavy-duty truck, medium-and heavy-construction vehicle, military, bus, agriculture, specialty transportation, mining, industrial equipment and off-road recreational markets. Information about the Company and its products is available on the internet at www.cvgrp.com.

Yes, we did sell them a few pedigreed trucks in the end. But very few. As you know, most had 2-stroke Detroit Diesels and Eaton transmissions.

Caterpillar’s 2020 Outlook Adds More Gloom to Virus-Shaken Markets Joe Deaux, Bloomberg / January 31, 2020 Caterpillar Inc., a worldwide barometer for manufacturing, is warning of more pain to come for the global economy in 2020. The heavy-equipment maker is projecting that its profits for the year will trail analysts’ estimates by as much as $2 a share. The weak outlook comes just as markets are reeling from the worsening outbreak of the coronavirus, a slump in manufacturing activity and major cutbacks in spending. “We expect continued global economic uncertainty to pressure sales to users in 2020 and cause dealers to further reduce inventories,” CEO Jim Umpleby said. Caterpillar has been trying to cut costs and trim inventories as demand in some of its main markets trails production. The outlook signals further headwinds for machine sales, which fell the most in almost three years last month. The company’s fourth-quarter earnings statement was released before the start of regular trading in New York. Caterpillar shares slipped 1.9% to $132.75 at 9:32 a.m. Profit in the fourth quarter topped analysts’ estimates, with the company citing “strong cost control” as helping to offset its demand issues. “We expect to be sort of flat to down 5% for our business in China, because of general market conditions, competitor positioning and so forth,” Chief Financial Officer Andrew Bonfield said Friday. “It’s a very competitive market, we were down slightly this year, even in an upmarket because of competition. So we got to get out there and fight.” Bonfield said Caterpillar expects U.S. residential and non-residential construction to decline, while investment in state and local infrastructure will be stable. He also said capital spending in mining will continue to increase in 2020, but that the recovery has been “much more slow and steady,” as companies are “maintaining capital discipline.” Caterpillar expects share buybacks in 2020 to be at a “similar level” to those in 2018 and 2019, Bonfield said. The outlook clouds prospects for the company that reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings of $2.63 per share, beating the $2.37 average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. “Strong cost control more than offset lower-than-expected end-user demand” helping the company report better-the-expected fourth-quarter results, Umpleby said. The company expects the bulk of the inventory drawdown to happen in the first half of the year, Bonfield said on an earnings call with analysts. CFRA (S&P Global) has downgraded Caterpillar (CAT) from hold to sell, and reduced its 1-year target price from $156 to $120.

Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) / January 30, 2020 Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Germany’s Knorr-Bremse AG, is buying R.H. Sheppard Co. Inc. from Wabco, a move that it says helps cement parent company’s position as a global supplier of integrated steering and braking systems as a basis for highly automated driving and advanced driver assistance systems. Sheppard is a supplier of steering technologies for commercial vehicles. Wabco is in the process of being acquired by ZF, which has its own advanced steering offerings. Closing on the $149.5 million deal is subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals and is contingent upon the closing of the ZF acquisition of Wabco. The move follows Knorr-Bremse’s spring 2019 acquisition of the commercial vehicle steering division of Hitachi Automotive Systems in Japan. “For Bendix and the North American marketplace in particular, this is a strong combination of two market leaders and an ideal addition to our evolving product and solutions portfolio,” said Michael Hawthorne, Bendix president and CEO. “The Sheppard product portfolio will further enable us to better respond to the requirements of North American customers in the different market segments and to offer tailor-made system solutions for the full range North American commercial vehicles.” Related reading - https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/51040-europe’s-wabco-acquires-steering-gear-maker-rh-sheppard/?tab=comments#comment-380222

The gentleman in the video says the silver bulldog means its a Mack truck because it's supported by vendors like Cummins, Allison and Meritor??? I thought a Mack truck had a pedigreed drivetrain? We did offer vendor drivetrains for stubborn fleets like Roadway, but a real Mack truck incorporated our self-designed engines, transmissions and axles. If having a Cummins engine means it's a Mack truck, then one assumes the Class 8 Macks come with Cummins engines........but they aren't even an option. Only the slow selling niche market Granite MHD has an ISL, and the Cummins-Westport ISX12N natural gas powerplant in select models. The Cummins X12 and X15 are not available in any Mack models.

Traton Makes Much-Anticipated Bid to Acquire Navistar Jack Roberts, Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT) / January 31, 2020 News broke late Jan. 30 that Volkswagen’s global truck unit, Traton SE, is finally making its long-anticipated bid to fully acquire all stock holdings of Navistar International. Since 2016, Volkswagen, through subsidiary Traton, has acquired a nearly 17% stake in Navistar. Now the company has made an unsolicited bid to acquire the remaining Navistar stake for $35 a share, representing a 45% premium on the company’s closing price of $24.07 a share on Thursday, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. This would put Navistar’s total valuation at $3.5 billion, WSJ added. Shares in Navistar rose 51% in after-hours trading. Traton and Navistar Traton was formed in 2018 out of Volkswagen’s Truck and Bus Group, in order to spearhead the German automaker's push to become a major player in the global commercial vehicle market. That bid included establishing a presence in North America – the world’s highest volume commercial vehicle market. To further that goal, Volkswagen had already developed a close relationship with Navistar, in 2016 announcing a strategic alliance that included various research and development projects. That alliance has helped lead to Navistar introducing a version of Volkswagen truck brand MAN’s diesel engine as the International A26 engine for International Class 8 trucks and more recently, a prototype electric medium-duty truck. Navistar struggled in the wake of its controversial decision on how to meet the Environmental Protection Agency's emissions 2010 standards. It decided to forego selective catalytic reduction (SCR) downstream exhaust technology to reduce diesel emissions in favor of advanced exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) technology. The company’s MaxxForce family of diesel engines were plagued with technical issues, largely related to the significant increase in waste heat they generated due to their advanced EGR systems, and Navistar’s commercial vehicle market share and stock price suffered as a result. Navistar endured a long series of lawsuits over the failure of the MaxxForce engines to perform as advertised, but settled all pending complaints and “closed the books” on those engines last year. In a press statement, Traton said that as the global commercial vehicle industry continues to evolve, it believes that the proposed transaction is the logical next step and would result in even greater benefits. Traton said the combined company would be better able to meet the demands of new regulations and rapidly developing technologies in connectivity, propulsion and autonomous driving. Combining Traton’s leading position in the European and South American markets with Navistar’s presence in North America would create a leader with global reach and complementary capabilities, it said. “Over the past three years, we have benefitted from a highly collaborative and productive strategic alliance with Navistar,” Traton CEO Andreas Renschler said in the press statement. “As the market continues to evolve, we believe there are compelling strategic and financial benefits to a full combination of Traton and Navistar. The proposed transaction would create a leader in commercial vehicles with global scale and a strong portfolio of leading brands and cutting-edge products, technologies and services while delivering immediate and substantial value to Navistar stockholders.” The transaction would also provide substantial value to Navistar stockholders through an immediate and certain cash premium, it noted. Will a Traton-Navistar Deal Happen? Navistar issued a news release confirming the news of the offer, saying it would carefully review and evaluate the proposal, and advised its shareholders to take no action at this time. “There can be no assurance that any negotiations between Navistar and Traton regarding this proposal will take place, and if such negotiations do take place, there can be no assurance that any transaction with Traton will occur or be consummated," the statement read. A report in Barron's noted that one stumbling block could be the need to win over Navistar's largest shareholder, Carl Icahn, whose fund controls 16.9% of Navistar’s shares. "Icahn and two other activist funds, Mark Rachesky’s MHR Fund Management and Gabelli Funds, together own 40% of Navistar’s shares, according to Refinitiv data," Barron's reported. "Rachesky and another MHR executive, Raymond Miller, sit on Navistar’s board [of directors], as does a representative of Icahn’s interests. Traton Chief Executive Andreas Renschler and the German truck maker’s chief financial officer, Christian Schulz, also have seats on Navistar’s board." That board, as Navistar noted in its statement, "in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, will carefully review and evaluate the proposal in the context of Navistar's strategic plan for the company in order to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and its stakeholders." Jeffery Kaufman, managing director for Loop Capital and a Navistar shareholder, told HDT in a statement that the Traton offer “feels light.” “We reaffirm our Buy rating and $38 price target based on forward fundamentals,” Kaufman said in a market analysis his firm issued on the proposed deal. “We believe the unsolicited proposal by Traton SE to take over the remaining 83.2% of the company that it doesn't own is inadequate. Recall that during Navistar's analyst day last fall, implied management targets to 2024 suggest a $120+ share price over the next five years. Clearly the cycle will be near a low point for the next 12-18 months, and coming in with a bid to acquire the shares makes sense – however, our current sum-of-parts valuation for Navistar yields $51.”

VW Plots U.S. Truck Expansion With $2.9 Billion Navistar Offer Bloomberg / January 30, 2020 Volkswagen offered to buy the rest of Navistar International in a $2.9 billion bid to secure a bridgehead in the U.S. heavy-truck market and step up its challenge to Daimler and Volvo. The expansion was somewhat offset by Volkswagen’s first major divestment since the German automaker skidded into the diesel-emissions scandal in 2015. An agreement to sell industrial machinery unit Renk AG, valued at 760 million euros ($840 million), indicates VW is more inclined to bulk up than slim down, even amid the costly shift to electric cars. The swoop for Navistar would reduce the reliance of VW’s heavy-truck unit Traton SE on Europe and South America. While the deal could help the company vie with Daimler and Volvo in North America, heavy-truck makers are preparing for a downturn after years of growth. Navistar, truck-engine maker Cummins and supplier Meritor announced thousands of job cuts late last year. VW’s heavy-truck division was created from acquisitions of Germany’s MAN and Sweden’s Scania. The unit had for years struggled to combine the operations before hiring former Daimler executive Andreas Renschler, who successfully spearheaded a partial listing of Traton last year. Traton offered Navistar holders $35 a share in cash, 45% higher than its Thursday closing price. Lisle, Illinois-based Navistar -- which builds International-brand trucks, school buses, defense vehicles and engines -- said its board will review the proposal and there’s no assurance the deal will take place. Shares of Navistar, whose biggest holder is billionaire investor Carl Icahn, soared as much as 53% to $36.79 in late trading on Thursday. VW, which already owns a stake of almost 17%, gained 0.4%. at 9:51 a.m. in Frankfurt on Friday. Traton shares rose 0.3%. VW purchased its stake in Navistar in September 2016, laying the groundwork for a footprint in North America, the truck industry’s largest source of profits. Daimler’s Freightliner and Volvo’s Mack divisions generate significant sales in the region. It’s unclear whether VW’s offer will satisfy Icahn, 83, and Mark Rachesky, the founder and chief investment officer of MHR Fund Management, which is Navistar’s third-largest shareholder with a 16% stake. Icahn, who first bought into Navistar in 2011, built his holding with an average cost per share of $33.62, and the stock has traded below that level for most of the last year. Rachesky’s average price paid was $27.80. Rare Streamlining If a deal closes, VW will take over a company in the midst of a fix-it job. Navistar said in December it will reduce employment by 10% and cut its 2020 revenue forecast to a range of $9.25 billion to $9.75 billion, below analysts’ lowest estimate. Alongside the expansion, Wolfsburg, Germany-based VW agreed to sell Renk to private equity firm Triton Partners. The company was acquired as part of the automaker’s acquisition of MAN and represents a rare streamlining move by VW, which has been reviewing its non-core businesses for years with little progress.

But there’s nothing special about it. It has nothing at all over the T270/370, which is at this late stage firmly established in the market. Unless they price them competitively, which Volvo never does..........

I found a video. It's not on the Mack brand YouTube site, but rather the obscure customer center site. I don’t care for the loud obnoxious music. I’d rather hear a confidence-inspiring voice telling me about the truck. .

Volvo unveils Mack medium-duty lineup to be built in Virginia Truck News / January 30, 2020 ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – Mack Trucks is returning to the medium-duty truck market with a new Class 6/7 lineup that will be assembled at a dedicated facility in Roanoke County, Virginia. Known as the MD Series, the trucks begin serial production late this summer and are available for order today. The new Roanoke Valley Operations location represents a US $13-million investment for the OEM, 250 new jobs, and an annual economic impact of $364 million for the region. It was supported by a $700,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund. “This is an exciting day for Roanoke County,” said Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, before joining Mack Trucks executives and other government representatives to cut a ribbon to open the plant. The project has been in the works for about two years but was a tightly guarded secret prior to the announcement. Medium-duty truck market “Mack Trucks is very proud to make this investment and to now offer a full lineup of Class 6 to Class 8 commercial vehicles, serving virtually every segment of the market,” said Mack president Martin Weissburg. “With this investment, Mack is well-positioned for future success.” “The Class 6/7 market has been historically stable, 90,000 to 100,000 trucks a year in U.S. and Canada,” added Jonathan Randall, senior vice-president of North American sales and marketing. “We have a lot of customers already in our portfolio who already run medium-duty trucks, and they’ve been asking us for a single-source solution for quite a while.” “Now we feel our family portrait is complete,” he said. Mack hasn’t had a medium-duty offering since discontinuing the Freedom model in 2002. Earlier offerings in these weight classes included the MC Series and Midliner. “This isn’t new to us in any shape or form,” Randall said of the business segment. “[But] the Freedom was a heavily Renault-based truck, and this is all a North American-based truck.” The Mack MD The Class 6 Mack MD6 has a GVWR of 25,995 lb., while its Class 7 MD7 counterpart has a GVWR of 33,000 lb. They’ll focus on applications including dry van, refrigerated, stake/flatbed, dump and tank trucks, and be available in 4×2 configurations. The truck will be available in eight wheelbase lengths, supporting typical bodies that run from 10 to 26 feet. A 103-inch bumper-to-back-of-cab measurement will help to load up the front axle and deliver a tight turning radius as well. The Mack MD will come equipped with a Cummins B6.7 engine that can deliver 220-300 hp and 560-660 lb.-ft of torque, and Meritor front and rear axles. An Allison 2500HS six-speed automatic transmission will be standard, although an Allison 2500RDS is available for those who need a PTO. “They started from a solid foundation for the chassis, for the cab, for the exterior, for the interior,” said Roy Horton, director – product strategy. ‘Strength is at the very core’ Base models will ride on a spring suspension, although a Mack Maxlite air suspension is optional. Wheels will come in a standard 22.5-inch size, but 19.5-inch wheels are also available. “We’ve made the 120,000-psi steel frame rails standard,” Horton added, noting the industry standard is 80,000 psi. “Strength is at the very core of our image.” The cab itself will ride on an air suspension rather than rubber blocks, and includes several features found elsewhere in the Mack product family. The grille and hood match the styling of the Mack Anthem, introduced in late 2017, while the cab is a variation on the Mack Granite. Inside, drivers will find the same flat-bottom steering wheel used in the other trucks. Other features include power windows and door locks, cruise control, an air-ride driver’s seat, and optional two passenger bench seat with storage underneath. Telematics support will come in the form of a Geotab Go Rugged system, offering access to the Mack Uptime Center, as well as OneCall and ASIST support. The MD6 can be operated without a commercial driver’s licence when moving non-hazardous payloads. Mack’s new home The new Roanoke Valley Operations location was chosen to leverage several advantages. “From a logistics standpoint, the proximity to global headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina was a significant piece,” said James Chenier, senior vice-president – strategy and business development. The facility itself also required few modifications. “Proximity is important to us,” Randall said. “It fit our logistics really, really well.” The cabs will also be painted at Volvo Trucks North America’s nearby New River Valley plant. “This is a completely new platform, completely new product, and does not take anything out of LVO [Lehigh Valley Operations],” Randall stressed. The newly announced jobs offset Mack’s recent decision to lay off 305 employees from the LVO plant in Pennsylvania because of a downturn in the heavy truck market. Laid-off employees will have a chance to apply for roles in the new location, he said. “This is a great day for all Virginia,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. .

Volvo Unveils Medium-Duty Mack Truck Plant in Southwest Virginia Transport Topics / January 30, 2020 SALEM, Va. — Mack Trucks opened a facility to produce a new series of medium-duty trucks in southwest Virginia. Mack executives joined Virginia officials to unveil the plant, called Roanoke Valley Operations, on Jan. 30. The site will specialize in assembling medium-duty commercial motor vehicles. The 280,000-square-foot space, perched in the Blue Ridge Mountains, was converted from an industrial printing facility. The company invested $13 million, a sum that covered equipment, tooling and building enhancements. The plant is scheduled to start production in July. Mack will start taking truck orders immediately. “It’s a new product, it’s a new facility here, and it’s new jobs,” Mack Trucks President Martin Weissburg said. “We know this is the right place for this big investment.” Specifically, the plant will be used to assemble the Mack MD series. The Mack MD6 is a Class 6 truck that has a gross vehicle weight rating of 25,995 pounds. The Mack MD7 is a Class 7 truck that has a weight rating of 33,000 pounds. The trucks will be equipped with new lightweight chassis. Also new is the series’ air-suspended cab, which Director of Product Strategy Roy Horton said is meant to improve driver comfort and vehicle durability. The trucks are furnished with multiple grab handles, which a driver can use when entering and exiting the vehicle. The interior of each cab features a wraparound dashboard and a flat-bottomed steering wheel. The trucks are equipped with cruise control as well as power window controls and door locks. “For us, strength is at the very core of our image,” Horton said. “It’s a sharp-looking truck.” The trucks will be supported with Go Rugged telematics devices, produced by fleet management company Geotab. In terms of powertrain, the trucks will have Cummins B6.7 engines, Allison transmissions and Meritor front and rear axles. Each truck will feature a silver bulldog on its hood. The silver ornament signifies the truck contains components (such as an engine and transmission) that were not created by Mack. Gold bulldogs, which Jonathan Randall, senior vice president for North American sales, called the “purebred,” means a truck has all Mack components. Roanoke Valley Operations is projected to create 250 jobs, according to Gov. Ralph Northam, who approved a $700,000 grant from the commonwealth’s Development Opportunity Fund to support the project. “It is especially rewarding when we come to more rural parts of Virginia,” Northam said. “We have one of the most talented workforces.” This series marks Mack’s re-entry into medium-duty trucks. The Mack Freedom [Renault Midlum] was discontinued in 2002. Randall noted the MD series will translate into various applications, such as flatbeds, dump trucks, tank trucks and refrigerated loads. He said the customers who probably will find these vehicles useful specialize in something other than trucking, such as beer distributors and lumber professionals. “This is a natural extension of our brand,” Randall said. “Now, our family portrait, we believe, is complete.” Salem, which lies 7 miles west of Roanoke, toes Interstate 81. A major freight corridor, I-81 runs through Virginia for 325 miles. Weissburg said the new plant’s location complements Mack’s Mid-Atlantic footprint. Parent company Volvo Group has a manufacturing facility in Dublin, Va., about 45 miles west of Salem. .

"If" they had their act together, the Mack brand website would include the new MD Series on announcement day. It does not. https://www.macktrucks.com/trucks/ A YouTube MD Series promotional video would be a nice touch on announcement day as well. But hey, what could I possibly know.

Bob, they're using an abandoned facility outside Salem, formerly home to LSC Communications, and reconfigured it for truck "assembly". The Roanoke County and the City of Salem, Virginia, are thrilled. In 2018, Camrett Logistics purchased a 280,900-square-foot manufacturing building at 6450 Technology Drive that sits on 134 acres, just outside Salem, in Roanoke County. Volvo is leasing from Camrett Logistics, so they can bail when the truck flops. Foreign aggressor Volvo should give thanks to the American engineers of the former Mack Trucks for that CA/CH/DH cab, who made this new model possible. .