International Truck announced it has started customer shipments of its first International LT Series and RH Series trucks with the company's new A26 12.4-liter engines.

The company's internal testing shows these products are delivering up to 9% better fuel economy  over the comparable models built only a year ago.

When it unveiled the engine at the Technology & Maintenance Council annual meeting in February, the company said the A26 was developed through an initiative called Project Alpha that brought together a team of trucking industry powertrain engineers. The developers focused on emphasizing simplicity over complexity and using only proven components.

The truck and engine maker listed these as key features of the A26:
    •    Components engineered to maximize uptime
    •    Light weight of 2,299 pounds
    •    The most efficient engine in International’s on-highway lineup
    •    The quietest engine in International’s lineup
    •    Hundreds of thousands of hours of testing
    •    Millions of real-world test miles

"Delivering our 12.4-liter engine is a significant milestone for Navistar," said Persio Lisboa, Navistar executive vice president and chief operations officer. "We continue to receive great customer feedback on the products we're delivering today. Customers will continue to experience outstanding levels of quality, reliability and uptime with our new family of Class 8 on-highway trucks, now complete with the A26 engine."