Dive Brief:
- Navistar will lower production in the fourth quarter, something that was planned from the beginning of the year, according to President and CEO Persio Lisboa. Production rates have matched demand, and if there are fluctuations, Navistar will adjust to changes in demand with potential overtime, Lisboa told analysts during Wednesday morning's third-quarter earnings call.
- There is typically a decrease in demand during Q4, particularly for school buses, largely because of the quarter's seasonal nature, Lisboa said. The OEM expects production rates to pick up in the first quarter of 2021, driven by retail sales, and productions rates will likely be higher than they were in Q3.
- Navistar officials declined to discuss an increased bid from Traton SE, the trucking subsidiary of Volkswagen. Traton owns a minority stake in Navistar and offered in January to buy remaining shares for $35 per share, a bid worth $2.9 billion, according to Bloomberg. On Thursday, it upped its bid to $43 per share, according to The Detroit News.
Dive Insight:
Navistar's performance in Class 8 and bus production — as well as its alliances with TuSimple, In-Charge Energy and other companies — appears to have heightened Volkswagen's interest.
During its earnings report, Navistar disclosed partnerships with Samsara and Geotab that would allow International customers to add their fleet management software without the installation of additional vehicle hardware. Navistar also announced Wednesday it will produce electric and diesel trucks on the same assembly line at the San Antonio plant. The first vehicle off the line will be a full-electric truck, entirely built on the main assembly line, according to the OEM.
But the actual deployment of electric vehicles will take services, too.
That was why Navistar contracted with In-Charge Energy last month — to assist buyers and fleets with deployment, education and with the installation of charging stations.
"By streamlining our investments, we were able to free up significant capacity, which is being redeployed into advanced technology programs and strategic partnerships that accelerate our pace of progress," Lisboa said in the earnings news release.
Lisboa expanded on Navistar's plans to deploy electric and other advanced technologies to customers. Before Navistar will deliver electric school buses to a British Columbia school district, the dealerships will assist the buyers in the deployment with services.
"We had comprehensive support to the local authorities, to the school district," said Lisboa. "Through our dealers locally, there is special connectivity controls that were put in place for those buses that will be delivered. So, there is a ... pretty comprehensive plan around the electrification and how we deliver those products not just as products, but as services."
