Cabtec decision soon?
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• Speculation over the future of the Cabtec truck cab used by Dal, Pegaso and Seddon Atkinson could soon be ended: rumours have been circulating ever since Iveco took a 60% controlling stake in Pegaso in 1990.
The Cabtec users are expected to meet soon — and any decision is likely to have a significant long-term effect on their customers.
Stylish
The Cabtec company was set up by Daf and Pegaso in 1984 to design and engineer a heavy truck cab for both manufacturers. In 1987 the joint venture bore fruit, in the form of the stylish cab fitted to the Dal 95 Series and Pegaso Troner, A year later the Cabtec cab was also adopted by Seddon Atkinson for its Strato.
Daf and Pegaso build their own versions of the Cabtec cab, at Westerlo in Belgium and Madrid, and they move some components to each others' plants. The Cabtec cab used on the Strato is taken to Oldham by road almost complete.
But the original Cabtec engineering team has long since broken up: the Cabtec company now has little more than an administrative role. Following Iveco's takeover of Pegaso the whole Cabtec project and its products have come into sharper focus. Since 1990 Iveco has spent Z570m on restructuring Pegaso. The sprawling assembly plant at Madrid now has advanced engineering facilities, including robotised assembly.
Alongside the Pegaso Troner and Mider models, Madrid now builds Iveco's new EuroTech tractors and drawbars above 16 tonnes (CM 7-13 May), with Spanish models badged as Iveco Pegasos. EuroTech is also assembled at Iveco's Ulm plant in Germany, but Iveco says Madrid "will ultimately become the home for EuroTech".
What Pegaso isn't doing is using the 12,600m Cabtec cab assembly facility within its Madrid site to produce EuroTech cabs. EuroTech cab panels are already taken care of at Iveco's Brescia plant in Italy, which also supplies cab panels and chassis frames for the EuroCargo to Iveco Ford's Langley plant.
There is no intention to press EuroTech panels at Madrid at present, but will Iveco keep Cabtec assembly within the Madrid plant when it can build all the cabs it needs at other sites like Brescia? It does not seem logical for Iveco to run two cab building operations. Its ultimate aim must be to provide a single family of cabs to all Iveco Group members, including Seddon Atkinson and Pegaso — in the long run the Cabtec cab will ultimately be dropped from Iveco Group models. How long the long run will be is anyone's guess.
No hurry
The good news for Seddon Atkinson and Pegaso is that Iveco is in no hurry to implement such a plan, so the Strato and the Ironer will be around for some years yet. Iveco says it is "keen to protect the Seddon Atkinson Strato" — a point underlined by Seddon Atkinson managing director Bob Sculfor: "Our product plan is very clear," he says. "We will continue to produce a Strato with the Cabtec cab as our premium tractor."
Whichever cab Seddon ultimately uses, its manufacturing niche of providing a bespoke driveline — not based on an Iveco engine — will be undiminished.
TurboStar
Having switched EuroTech production to Madrid, Iveco will have plenty of capacity at the Ulm plant to produce the longawaited replacement to the TurboStar, which will be called the EuroStar, due to be launched next year.
EuroStar will have the ultimate lop-of-the-range version of the EuroCargo/EuroTech cab family, and there would be nothing to stop Iveco from eventually using it on Seddon and Pegaso heavy tractors, in much the same way as the EuroCargo cab has been used by Seddon on its T5 17-tonner.
Meanwhile at Madrid the Cabtec production plant continues to produce Troner, Strato and old model Pegaso cabs. But what of Daf? It still uses pressings from the Madrid Cabtec facility on the 95 Series.
If Iveco replaced the Cabtec cab across its heavy truck range before Daf had a new truck cab available it could be forced to buy the pressings it needs from another supplier, or to purchase the dies held by Pegaso and produce every pressing itself.
Chances are it will have little option but to plough its own furrow, as it has already done on the 75 and 85 Series.