Presenting a revolutionary Zero Impact study at this year’s IAA, Iveco also looked back at a highly successful year. Confidence boosts came from orders for the new Stralis and Trakker from high profile customers that have been testing the vehicles over the past month.

At the booth we met with Koray Kursunoglu, Truck & Bus Business Director (Head of IVECO) South East Asia & Japan Region,. “, being one of the full-line manufacturer we have wide range of products from light commercial vehicles to heavy commercial vehicles For IAA 2016. Here at our booth, we have our latest Z Truck concept which was unveiled yesterday; we also have a number of our prime movers, buses and transport solutions displayed inside and outside in the open air areas. These types of vehicles are the solutions our customers seek,” he told us in an exclusive interview at the IAA.

“For South East Asia, we started to restructure our organization and presence in the region, therefore at the moment we are growing year on year because demand is increasing. For example, in terms of retail sales to compare 2015 and 2016, we have increased in sales more than 80%,” Kursunoglu stated.

“IAA is an international exhibition; hence this is the right platform for us to connect with our customers and public, especially to showcase our new truck for the future that aims at zero emission, zero consumption, and zero accidents. We also brought our customers and distributors from Korea and Singapore. Korea is using Euro 6 and Singapore is going to Euro 6 in 2018. Hence, this is a good opportunity for them to come and see what we can offer to complete the product range offered in either country.”

Following the launch of the gas powered Stralis, The Iveco Z-Truck is a logical evolution of this approach. Using optimized Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) , the truck is also designed to eliminate stress and wastes of time for the driver. The cab, although very futuristic looking, can be completely reconfigured depending on the activities during the day. The cab will either be an office or a resting area. The pioneering design has resulted in some 29 patents that have been filed. Again, as with the Stralis, Petronas has been a key partner in the development as is apparent in the livery of the vehicle on display.

Another new truck on display was the Astra as an off-road application. Offering a 50 ton GVW, the truck can handle more payload thanks to a lowered centre of gravity. The truck will have now body subframe while still having the same robustness as its predecessors.

Also exhibited was the “The Truck the city likes”: the Eurocargo range was crowned “International Truck of the Year 2016”. On the stand, Iveco will introduce the new Euro VI C compliant ML160 (16t) in the new full air suspended version and display the eco-sustainable Natural Power version that runs on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

James Koh, Assistant General Manager, Sales, Goldbell Corporation was present during the IAA. Goldbell is a market leader in industrial vehicles leasing: commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles and industrial equipment. They have been an authorized distributor for IVECO since 2009.

“The Singaporean market is still doing fine so far, but for certain areas it is going a bit slow. Nevertheless, we take that as a challenge for our business, and to stay competitive, we will not follow the market flow,” Koh said.

Koh added “Definitely we see a full potential in IVECO because of the product range and the availability of the product range in our market. With IVECO’s help, we could provide our customers with better solutions for their business.”