Offering gas and electric across its range has given Iveco traction with “customers who have never bought or never thought about Iveco before”.
Speaking exclusively to Commercialmotor.com at IAA Hannover, Pierre Lahutte, Iveco brand president, said that adoption of alternative fuels by operators across Europe was “going even quicker” than he thought in certain segments.
This, he said was happening especially with CNG at the heavier end of the range: “It is the most dynamic of our core offerings. It is growing very fast especially with customers who have never bought or never thought about Iveco before. It is getting quicker than what we though. It is getting quicker as we create the market,” Lahutte said.
“We will sign a lot of deals in the coming weeks,” he promised. “We have beaten our objectives on the development of CNG trucks, especially in the UK with our 6x2 version.”
Lahutte pointed to the July deal with home delivery firm Ocado, which saw 29 Stralis NPs supplied by Guest Truck and Van, and with refuelling infrastructure support supplied by Gasrec. He also singled out stock availability from Dawsonrentals: “There is a question mark on the medium term value of diesel vehicles. Having availability with Dawson, for example, is very important.”
With rival MAN voicing concerns at IAA over the tariff impacts of a no-deal Brexit on the price of a truck, Lahutte said it was a case of “wait and see” as to what the situation would mean for truck buyers after 29 March 2019: “We do not know what will happen,” he said.
