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Chevrolet is opting to badge engineer a small van to fight Transit Connect....not full size Transit or Sprinter....

 

Meet Chevrolet City Express...

2015-chevrolet-city-express-futurevehicl

 

Built on the same line as Nissan NV200 small van...

Nissan_NV200_1.jpg

 

 

What power train does it use? Is GM going to guarantee a Nissan? Will techs @ Chevy do the work?

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Ford worked with Nissan on the Quest/Villager. IIRC, the companies started on a shared design V-8 for Infiniti/Lincoln, but parted ways over design issues. IIRC, the Quest/Villager V-6 had a problem with broken exhaust manifold studs on the rear bank. $2 parts that require $1,000 labor. :)

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In case you missed it- Cummins will soon start supplying Navistar with their 6.7L ISB diesel for the International Durastar medium truck and school bus chassis. It sounds like this may be a temporary move if/when Navistar's MaxxForce DT is fitted with SCR.

Yes- sounds lijke another defensive move to keep class 6, 7 market share UNTIL the DT has SCR.

 

In their press release they talk about the experience they have with the 6.7 in the Bluediamond JV!

 

In any case this entire EGR issue with Navistar has to be one of the all time truck building screw ups-or bad gambles

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I know the stats have been showing Ram outselling Ford in class 1 thru 5, but I just refused to believe it. But now I'm actually starting to see it on the road and in the parking lots. There's a big Ford dealer in the town I work in; he's been there for probably 50 years.maybe more. But two coworkers bought Rams! One guy says he paid $5000 less than an equally speced F150. Is Ram dumping trucks? Even the fairgrounds I've attended recently have more Rams on site. A buddy told me out of 20 vehicles at a truck pull, 15 were Rams, 4 were Fords and one was Chevy. Ford needs to turn this around. Are the Hemi and Cummins names too much to resist?

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For sure the Mopar numbers are in 3, 4 and 5. And I would agree with Ifeg-the Cummins 6.7 is a big reason. A lot of confidence in that motor-plus not everyone likes the thought of a V-8 stuffed under the hood of a light truck-regardless of P-Stroke or Duramax.

 

In the meantime I drove through the nearby Altec facility yesterday- another big batch of 550 chassis delivered. I have never seen their yard so full of units awaiting installations. the just finished about 25 E series with buckets and they looklike theyare ready to ship. As for mediums, not a ford in sight but plenty of F-liners, a few Binders and even a couple of KW's.

 

Ford's 650/750 ytd numbers are looking good but I still scratch my head- Ford spokesman quoted in Transport Topics in an article on swing to lower classes, words to effect...."well we're doing well in rec chassis and also seeing people because their previous suppliers are no longer in the business". How is that for a positive spin? May be true but do you talk about .."well we are the only gas engine in class 6" or do you say.."well we got some business by default". I know what I would talk about.

 

 

 

I scratch my head.

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For sure the Mopar numbers are in 3, 4 and 5.

Must be. Neither Ford nor Dodge Ram to appear to break out their numbers by class, but Ford has sold more than twice as many F-Series trucks as Ram has sold "Ram P/U"s (just under 500K F-Series vs. just under 235K for Ram, YTD). Ford lists a separate "Heavy Trucks" category; are those 6/7? At just over 5K units, it doesn't amount to much in Ford's big picture, but it looks good on a percentage basis (up 19.8% year-over-year)...

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Must be. Neither Ford nor Dodge Ram to appear to break out their numbers by class, but Ford has sold more than twice as many F-Series trucks as Ram has sold "Ram P/U"s (just under 500K F-Series vs. just under 235K for Ram, YTD). Ford lists a separate "Heavy Trucks" category; are those 6/7? At just over 5K units, it doesn't amount to much in Ford's big picture, but it looks good on a percentage basis (up 19.8% year-over-year)...

Correct-the "Heavy" Ford numbers are 650/750. As for class 3,4,5, Dodge Had 45.7% of the market YTD July and Ford had 34.59% same period. Hopefully the Power Stroke continues to perform and the 6.0/6.4 fiasco will become less of an influence.

 

Then again, I have no clue but perhaps Dodge is buying their market share. I also think the fact they still offer a manual gives them another small advantage.

 

On a positive note, latest issue of HDT has a Ford ad featuring a 650 gas job in tree service. At least its relevant.

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OK, let me add another fuel to the mix. In class 6 - 8 we already have diesel, with CNG, LNG, and gasoline coming on. A new one blindsided me today, DME - dimethyl ether. Seems Volvo Trucks has been working on it for a while, and has some test fleets running on it in thet US and Europe. Just saw the announcement that Mack will offer a DME fueled model in 2015 (Pinnacle Axle Back model).

 

DME can be made from methanol, natural gas, or biogas. It has interesting properties. It combusts like diesel, but with no soot. It is a liquid, stores like propane at 75 psi and is injected as a liquid similar to diesel. No DPF or EGR is needed. Cetane number is about 55 to 60. Making it from biogas from food waste, 100 tons of waste will yield 4500 gallons of DME. Drawback is that DME is less energy dense than diesel, so larger capacity fuel tanks are necessary. On the Mack, they say the larger tanks will not interfere with vocational equipment and still give a range of 600 miles on a daycab application.

 

Interesting.

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OK, let me add another fuel to the mix. In class 6 - 8 we already have diesel, with CNG, LNG, and gasoline coming on. A new one blindsided me today, DME - dimethyl ether. Seems Volvo Trucks has been working on it for a while, and has some test fleets running on it in thet US and Europe. Just saw the announcement that Mack will offer a DME fueled model in 2015 (Pinnacle Axle Back model).

 

DME can be made from methanol, natural gas, or biogas. It has interesting properties. It combusts like diesel, but with no soot. It is a liquid, stores like propane at 75 psi and is injected as a liquid similar to diesel. No DPF or EGR is needed. Cetane number is about 55 to 60. Making it from biogas from food waste, 100 tons of waste will yield 4500 gallons of DME. Drawback is that DME is less energy dense than diesel, so larger capacity fuel tanks are necessary. On the Mack, they say the larger tanks will not interfere with vocational equipment and still give a range of 600 miles on a daycab application.

 

Interesting.

The good news on the larger tank issue is, it does not have to be as rugged as the LNG/CNG tanks. Plus as you don't need Urea, you gain some chassis space that was taken up by the DPF tank. Almost sounds too good to be true.

 

And for a vocational truck application, a range of 600 miles is far in excess of what is realistically needed. I would bet a high percentage of heavy vocational applications are closer to 150 miles per shift vs. 600.

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Bob, I can see DME as a fuel for the refuse companies. Waste management, Republic, and others have large landfills that produce much methane. I see some that vent it, some flre it, and a few collect it. Oberon Fuels has "package plants" to convert biogas to DME, so that is one way to convert the methane from the landfills to a higher value product. And the refuse companies can then fuel their trucks with it.

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Bob, I can see DME as a fuel for the refuse companies. Waste management, Republic, and others have large landfills that produce much methane. I see some that vent it, some flre it, and a few collect it. Oberon Fuels has "package plants" to convert biogas to DME, so that is one way to convert the methane from the landfills to a higher value product. And the refuse companies can then fuel their trucks with it.

For sure. Another landfill option is to power large stationary engines-like big Cats and Waukeshas that are in the 3000 cu.inch diplacement range to burn the methane and power generators. These installations are not cheap. This should be a no brainer. The key is just what does this conversion process cost. It seems that this process has all of a sudden popped out of the woodwork.

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Latest figures from HDT mag shows Ram with 46 percent marketshare year to date for class 3,4,and 5. Ford has 35 percent. GM total is 14 percent! Like I said, GM is out of commercial truck biz. Hino is still behind Ford in class 6 & 7. UD trucks sold 166 trucks in class 5 thru 7 in July. Why bother?

Edited by Joe771476
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Sterling??

 

I don't see Sterling being resurrected. My guess (if there's any truth to this at all) is GM is waiting for Navistar to go bankrupt. You know, IF Navistar could be acquired, what would happen if GM dropped all the International diesels and replaced them with Isuzu designs? They make a lot of compliant diesels up to 15.7L. Could be interesting.

 

Acquisitions run as separate organizations are the only way it makes sense for major auto/light truck manufacturers to be involved in the medium heavy truck business. Like Mercedes=Benz and Daimler Trucks, for instance.

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Even with the Ford/International animosity, Ford would be a better choice to take over International. GM's been out of heavies WAY longer than Ford. In other news, as I saw elsewhere in here, Ford will skip the 2014 MY and go to 2015 in January. But how do you call a truck made in Jan 2014 a 2015?! Hino is catering to the dump body biz featuring a clean back of cab area for ease of upfitters. HDT magazine notes correctly that Ford is #3 in class 6 due to range of engines and Ford's class 7 share was 6 percent, about the same as Kenworth and more than all other players except Peterbilt. Of course combined, that is PACCAR.

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Even with the Ford/International animosity, Ford would be a better choice to take over International. GM's been out of heavies WAY longer than Ford. In other news, as I saw elsewhere in here, Ford will skip the 2014 MY and go to 2015 in January. But how do you call a truck made in Jan 2014 a 2015?! Hino is catering to the dump body biz featuring a clean back of cab area for ease of upfitters. HDT magazine notes correctly that Ford is #3 in class 6 due to range of engines and Ford's class 7 share was 6 percent, about the same as Kenworth and more than all other players except Peterbilt. Of course combined, that is PACCAR.

 

Not really! When GM gave up on the OTR heavy truck market in 1988, I was told some of their engineering staff went to GM Volvo, but most stayed with GM and worked on mediums and Isuzu joint venture trucks. GM continued to build class 8 vocationals until July 2009. Most of the individuals involved with the 560 program were reassigned and remain in the company. Ford on the other hand dropped out of class 8 in 1997. Quite a bit of their staff went to Sterling. Ford gave their mediums to Blue Diamond in 2002, and I am not sure how many with medium and heavy truck experience remain at Ford. I have no idea who is or will be working on the Avon Lake mediums.

 

In any event, from a staffing standpoint there would likely be no difference between a GM or Ford takeover of Navistar. Navistar would most likely continue with it's own people under GM or Ford ownership. Which brings us back to my original point: the only way I think it makes sense for a high volume auto manufacturer to be involved with medium and heavy truck manufacturing is through a separate subsidy.

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