The Iveco Group automotive company will begin testing domestically produced CNG engines next year, with the aim of starting to market them from 2024.
The new engines, for trucks and buses that are currently equipped with imported gas machineswill be destined for the local market and mainly for export.
This initiative -carried out in the plant that it owns in the Cordoba town of Ferreyra- will strengthen the presence of the brand in Argentina, and will avoid the costs of importing these products together with the nationalization of parts.
Iveco Group, is a leading automotive brand that works worldwide with a wide range of products, including light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles (IVECO), powertrain (FPT Industrial), buses (Heuliez, IVECO Bus), and financial services (Iveco Capital).
Globally, Iveco has 28 industrial plants and 29 Research and Development Centers in Europe, China, Russia, Australia, Africa, Argentina and Brazil.
Regarding Argentina, this year the Cordoba engine plant celebrated its first decade of production with record numbers.
Since its launch adds 167,000 manufactured engines, and they project to close 2022 with 30,200 units, with an increase of 19% compared to 2021.
With regard to the market, most of the production that comes out of the Cordoba plant is destined to satisfy the demand for Iveco vehicles (49%), harvesters, tractors and construction equipment from the CNH group (48%) and generator sets local (3%)
“25% of the engines produced in Córdoba are aimed at the Argentine market, while the remaining 75% is exported to clients such as Hyundai, Ford, CAT, Stellantis (of the FIAT group), Volkswagen Trucks and Buses, among others” Marco Rangel, president of FPT Industrial for Latin America, told Télam.
The beginnings of the factory date back to 2012 when the brand produced the first engines in the country with the Cursor series. Shortly after, they began to manufacture two new versions of the NEF family of engines.
Today in the Argentine market, out of every 4 trucks and buses sold, 1 uses an FPT engineconsidered one of the leaders in the heavy vehicle segment.
In parallel, Of every 3 tractors sold in the country, 1 uses FPT; and 1 out of every 2 harvesters of national production.
“The possibility that the FPT plant in Cordoba will begin to produce CNG engines is an increasingly viable fact,” said Santos Doncel Jones, president of Iveco Group Argentina, referring to the start of the test stage in 2023. .
Doncel Jonse, in dialogue with Télam, said that “we know that Europe is going towards electrification and Argentina is the size of Europe, but if I start to think that I have to move a 70-ton truck in an oil well, far from the city I don’t have a power line. Therefore, I think this new sustainable mobility law that is being discussed is very important, it begins to have this focus, that is, what is the best solution for each problem.”
“Today the State is promoting more the development of CNG and the construction of a gas pipeline to take advantage of the potential that Vaca Muerta has is really an incentive.
We started in 2019 with this type of project -being pioneers-, and today we continue betting that this is the path for Argentina,” he added.
When asked Regarding the CNG engine testing project together with the nationalization of components, the manager pointed out that “this is an initiative that we have for 2023 and that we believe is strongly viable.”
“We have been working with CNG for a long time. In 2019 we launched the first approved Iveco vehicle with CNG, and today, the energy transition conditions that are taking place together with the friendliest regulations such as CNG, are an alternative very important in heavy transport”, he added.
Regarding the projections for next year, Doncel Jones said that for the Argentine market we see “a growth potential between 5 and 10% for our products, adding to the export market that continues to be solid and consolidated.”
This, together with the incorporation of Euro VI emission level engines for export, allows us to envision that next year will be a great year for us”, stressed the president of Iveco Group Argentina.
