Press Releases

The history of Iveco in Australia goes back to the beginning of the twentieth century, 1907 to be exact, with the arrival in Australia of the International Harvester Company of America and the assembly under licence of its first truck, the Autobuggy.
The factory in Dandenong was opened in 1952, ushering in the production in Australia of complete industrial vehicles.
In 1992 Iveco took over the Dandenong factory from International Harvester, and launched its range of heavy vehicles onto the Australian market. The vehicles were specially modified versions of the European-produced models at the time.
In 2001 the company changed its name to Iveco Trucks Australia, to emphasise the new production and commercial direction taken by the company. Today the Dandenong facility houses the head office of Iveco Trucks Australia, as well as the Customer Service department with its Parts & Assistance Centre, and the design department tasked with transferring Iveco’s European technology to guarantee maximum reliability of our products in Australia’s challenging operating conditions.

The Dandenong factory
Located not far from Melbourne, the Dandenong factory represents the biggest investment in an automotive production site ever made in Australia. Today Iveco is still the only European maker present in Australia with its own factory which, although its extent and production volumes are obviously much smaller than Iveco’s European factories, is more than big enough and well-equipped to serve its reference markets of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The Dandenong site occupies a surface area of 34,000 square metres, of which over 30,000 are covered. Over 200,000 trucks have rolled off the production lines at the plant, placing the factory in first place in Australia in terms of units produced in the industrial vehicles sector.
Iveco production in Dandenong mainly consists of medium-to-heavy vehicles, and includes the PowerStar, Acco, and Stralis models along with chassis for buses and two models under the International brand.
The factory employs over 600 people, half of which work on assembly lines with a capacity to produce an average volume of 1,800 vehicles.

PowerStar
Launched at the Brisbane show in 2005, the PowerStar is designed to optimise driver efficiency by reducing fatigue levels. For example, the gear change is mounted on the dashboard, leaving the cabin space free from obstructions and resulting in major advantages for movement, both at the controls and in the night-time compartment.
Fitted with ultra-modern Cursor engines (13 and 10-litre, six-cylinder inline, 550HP and 405HP), the PowerStar features automatic EuroTronic 2 transmission as standard and two cabin variants to properly meet all transport requirements.
The PowerStar combines the aggressive image of American-style “bonneted” trucks with European comfort and technology, to meet the standards and performance levels required by the Australian market.

Iveco
Iveco designs, manufactures, and markets a broad range of light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles, off-road trucks, city and intercity buses and coaches as well as special vehicles for applications such as fire fighting, off-road missions, defence and civil protection.
Iveco employs over 24,500 people and runs 27 production units in 16 Countries in the world using excellent technologies developed in 5 research centres. Besides Europe, the company operates in China, Russia, Turkey, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, and South Africa. More than 4,600 service outlets in over 100 Countries guarantee technical support wherever in the world an Iveco vehicle is at work.


Turin, 6 June 2007