Navistar Sells RV Business, Drops eStar Van as Part of Its Turnaround Plan

UPDATED-- Navistar Inc. announced that it has sold parts of its recreational vehicle business to Allied Specialty Vehicles (ASV), a leading producer of RVs as well as fire & emergency and commercial & industrial vehicles to worldwide markets.

Navistar also disclosed that it had discontinued its eStar electric van, in March of this year. The eStar was introduced in 2010 in partnership with Modec of the UK and with the help of a $39.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Navistar bought the intellectual rights to the van out of Modec’s bankruptcy the following year.

About this time, Navistar had purchased the Monaco motor home brand and manufacturing assets, which included plants in Oregon and Indiana. Those plants are included in the sale of RV assets to ASV, as are the Monaco, Holiday Rambler and R-Vision products and brands, Navistar said on Thursday. ASV has also entered into a multi-year leasing agreement for Navistar RV's Elkhart, Ind., facility. The sale does not include Bison Coach, Navistar's horse trailer manufacturing business.

The sell-off of Navistar RV and dropping of eStar and other products are part of the company’s restructuring begun under previous leadership and continuing under new top executives who took over in March.

“The decision was tied to our Drive to Deliver turnaround plan which focuses on strengthening our core North American business,” spokesperson Elissa Koc said. “We’ve also taken a disciplined Return-On-Invested-Capital approach to evaluating non-core businesses and product programs for potential sale, closing or fixing.”
 
She said this has included:

• suspending development and production of Navistar’s 15-liter truck diesel;
• announcing the closure of its plant in Garland, Texas;
• selling its stake in a truck and engine joint venture with Mahindra in India; and
• subleasing approximately 25% of its Alabama engine facility to FreightCar America, a maker of railroad freight cars.

Last fall, Navistar shut down its Workhorse Custom Chassis subsidiary, which built walk-in van and motor home chassis in Union City, Ind. Navistar had bought it several years earlier after selling diesels to the then-independent  producer.

Navistar embarked on cost-cutting following heavy financial losses due to problems with MaxxForce diesels that avoided use of selective catalytic reduction for exhaust treatment. A stockholder revolt brought about the management change, and to its relenting on the SCR issue.

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