Navistar currently has over 100 dealer locations ready to help fleets through their EV journey, with more than 30% of its dealer locations ready to support the sale and service of both International and IC Bus EVs. These dealers cover 41 states and 7 of 10 Canadian Provinces.
"The International and IC Bus dealer network live our customer-first value and that is no different in the transition to EVs," said Debbie Shust, VP, Work Truck Business, Navistar. "A zero-emissions future requires collaboration from all stakeholders. For our customers to have a positive experience with EVs, our dealers must be appropriately prepared to sell and service them."
To be EV authorized, dealers must:
- Provide a sales plan and resources to support the fleet customer through the planning and delivery phases of their EV journey.
- Invest in technician training to provide timely maintenance and repairs.
- Invest in service equipment including lifts, tools and chargers to ensure dealers are fully prepared to diagnose all aspects of EVs and keep customer vehicles on the road.
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"We see the future of commercial transportation being more and more battery electric in certain applications," said Rick Otten, President, Cumberland, an International and IC Bus dealer with nine locations across Tennessee and Florida. "We want to be ahead of the curve to best serve our customers and provide a flawless customer service experience for all the vehicles we offer, either diesel, electric, or other fuel options by application as a bridge to potentially electric as a solution. We are future proofing our business and educating ourselves so that we can be trusted advisors to our truck and bus customers in their journeys to sustainable operations, regardless of where they are in that journey now."
Navistar supports dealers and customers with a dedicated Zero Emissions team, following a three-step consultative approach to help customers more easily transition to EVs.
- Consulting: Understanding concerns, motivations to adopt EVs, and discuss short- and long-term plans. This allows us to help craft an adoption roadmap for the customer which can include route and range analysis, grant funding and charging and infrastructure planning.
- Charging & Infrastructure: Understanding power needs, assisting the customer in making the appropriate charging hardware decisions based on their specific routes and application, and future-proofing operations by looking at the customer's long term EV goals. Navistar and its partners can support customers in the design and build out of infrastructure and charging.
- Customer Onboarding: Coordination of truck and body build timing, charging and infrastructure build as well as customer, driver and other training to ensure that when the vehicle arrives, it can be woven into customers' operations with minimal disruption.
"Navistar is committed to supporting our customers' carbon reduction goals and our Zero Emissions team along with our dealers are working tirelessly to assist them in that mission," Shust added.
Currently Navistar offers the all-electric International eMV Series medium-duty vehicle and the Electric CE Series from the leading electric school bus manufacturer, IC Bus, LLC.
