ERF signs up Steyr day cab
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• Austrian truck builder Steyr-Daimler-Puch is to supply ERF with Steyr 16and 17-tonne day cabs.
Accoridng to ERF managing director Cyril Acton, "the 16and 17-tonne cabs will be offered only as an option. We'll keep our own cabs as well." He expects the narrower, smaller Steyr-built cabs to be especially attractive to big fleet buyers such as the major distribution groups and wants them to be available by October — but does not expect that the Steyr model will be a popular export vehicle.
The agreement is a reciprocal deal, and Steyr hopes to buy glass-reinforced plastic components from ERF. Acton says that the venture does not require a major investment. The popular E Series cab will continue to be the flagship of ERF's main truck range. Steyr announced at the Geneva Motor Show four weeks ago its plans to enter the UK market in full in its own right before the end of this year, (CM 21-27 January). It will offer a range of middleweight trucks, and according to Steyr's truck division managing director Ernst Pranckl, the deal with ERF will make no difference to his company's plans to introduce right-handdrive vehicles to the British market this year. The Steyrcabbed ERF will be a different product to the Austrians' 13and 17-tanners and tractive units, he says.
The two rigid Steyr models will, however, have the same cab as the ERF. It is a 2.2mwide unit described by Franck] as "our medium-duty cab". Initially, at least, the cabs will be brought in fully assembled and trimmed, although the opportunity to trim the cabs does exist.
Meanwhile, Steyr says that it is on schedule for the introduction of its own vehicles here "well before the Birmingham show". The decision whether to use an importer or to set up its own subsidiary in Britain is some two to three weeks away, according to Prancld. The right-hand-drive vehicles will be homologated by the end of April, he says, and through British type-approval by the summer.