AWD to launch 38-tonne 11. .No ov d e a t te o tor r e R b T i l a ' c s k
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• AWD will launch a 38tonner in the first quarter of next year, managing director Michael Sanderson has told Commercial Motor.
It will be based on its existing TL cab and will use the 198kW (265hp) Cummins C Series engine. The vehicle will be a lightweight artic aimed at the short-haul or distribution market where operators do not need high-power engines.
AWD is currently going through Type Approval with its latest range of TLs which include a 17-tonner aimed at the drawbar market; a 6x4 24tonne tipper, and 32-tonne tractive unit. They are all fitted with the 8.3-litre Cummins C Series power unit and will be ready for customers early in the new year. Cummins latest 205kW (275hp) C engine will be offered on the range at a later date.
Sanderson says the 38tonner will "complete AWD's range to the top legal weight". He adds: "It has always been in our plans since the beginning to do a 38-tonner. We hit upon a way of doing it at a low development cost."
Meanwhile, the company has ruled out an "owner-driver's" 38-tonner equipped with the old Bedford TM cab. Its present TL line-up ranges from 7.5-tonners to a 21-tonne urban artic.
Sanderson joined AWD in the summer, replacing Ron Hancock, who stood down after 27 months. Sanderson came from an engineering company and admits to still be learning about the truck market. AWD is owned by David JB Brown. It sold 124 trucks in the year to October compared with 113 for the same period in 1989. • Renault's new UK managing director Bernard Month' will not say when the lossmaking Renault Truck Industries will go into the black.
But speaking at a dinner last week, Momin said he would bring the Dunstable firm into profit with a plan that includes a £10m investment programme for its dealer network.
He added that following the Renault-Volvo tie-up, approved by the European Commission two weeks ago, both manufacturers would keep their own identities. He said that the lessons learned from owning Mack in the deregulated US haulage market would help when the European industry was liberalised in 1993.
Renault has sold about 500 of its new AE tractive unit across Europe, said Momin. The model becomes available in the UK next year.