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Driving Innovation to Reality

Iveco is taking part in the Hannover 2010 Motor Show with a significant number of products, services and innovative technologies.

The idea distinguishing the company's attendance at the show is "Driving Innovation to Reality", in other words "turning innovation into reality". Indeed, over recent years, Iveco has launched some of its most significant technological innovations, particularly in the field of alternative traction.

These innovative solutions were presented on the occasion of the IAA Motor Show in Hannover in 2008, when the company -with the motto "Moving Change" - had focused on the importance of innovation as an element of renovation and improvement for the world of transport. The reference time frame was medium to long term and some of the technological solutions presented at the show were, in fact, advanced prototypes.

The economic crisis in 2009, which was the most severe in the sector of commercial vehicles severely affected vehicle manufacturers, imposing restructuring plans and the reorganisation of projects and investments in research and development. In this context, Iveco decided to concentrate its resources on the priorities and to work towards making some of the innovative technologies developed over recent years available to all its customers. The result of such an engagement is the construction of products with a high technological content at affordable prices, while guaranteeing reliability, high performance levels, excellent technology and an indisputably advantageous cost/benefit ratio.

The countless technological innovations, from series and parallel hybrid traction systems , to natural gas engines and electric motors, have now been turned into vehicles which are available and accessible to our customers. They were all developed with their direct involvement, in order to address their specific mission and usage requirements in the best possible way. These are sustainable projects and products, able to combine low running costs with environmental friendliness: the two main features which have inspired the company over recent years.

Iveco is therefore presenting some significant innovative solutions at the show, which are used today by our customers and focus on specific mission requirements. Those electric or hybrid vehicles which in 2008 were futuristic and innovative proposals have turned into genuine vehicles featuring our customers' colours and which are used and tested every day in the most diverse conditions of use.

The company is working concretely towards achieving its goal: driving innovation to reality at affordable prices.

Iveco at the Motor Show

The Iveco stand at the 2010 Motor Show in Hannover, covering over 2,700 m2, is inspired by the great Italian genius Leonardo da Vinci, scientist, inventor, artist and sculptor. Some of his most famous drawings are faithfully reproduced throughout the entire exhibition area and represent the origin of some of his most important inventions, many of which were later constructed during the modern era.

The Vitruvian Man is depicted at the centre of the stand. In this drawing, Leonardo wanted to show the harmonious perfection of the human body, perfectly inscribed in the two regular geometric shapes par excellence: the circle and the square.

The centrality of man is the metaphor that describes to perfection the parallelism with the Iveco strategy, which has always placed man, i.e. the customer, at the centre of all its activities: from designing the product to marketing it, from customer support to the definition of specific financial services.

The walls of the stand picture some of the machines Leonardo had conceived and built as an experiment, including the bicycle and the hang glider. As a matter of fact, the synthesis of Leonardo's work was to manage to combine the creative genius with the possibility of transforming his inventions into concrete and available realities, and it is within this context that the idea behind both the shape and the contents of the Iveco stand in Hannover lies: “Driving Innovation to Reality”.

The display area, where some of the most representative vehicles from the different product ranges are on show, is split into three sections which interpret our customers' main missions: urban, medium and long distance and off-road.

The first section contains vehicles intended for use in urban areas, to carry both people as well as cargo. Four different versions of the ECODAILY are on display here, including an electric zero-emission van, which is able to drive around freely in historic city centres.

One absolute novelty is the availability on all ECODAILY vehicles with Diesel engines is the Blue&Me system integrated with the Tom Tom navigator, resulting from the collaboration between Microsoft and the Fiat Group infotainment platform and the most famous satellite navigation system, affording greater comfort of use and an accurate route planning capacity.

The section is completed by a hybrid Citelis, a 12-metre bus using a series hybrid Diesel-electric drive system capable of reducing emissions by up to 30%. The second section exhibits products for medium and long haul road transport. The hybrid Eurocargo, with a parallel hybrid Diesel-electric drive, is the very best point of equilibrium between transport requirements (load capacity and manoeuvrability) on the one hand and the environment on the other.
The Stralis, the Iveco flagship, is displayed here in a multitude of configurations and is the company's answer to long-haul cargo transport.

The focus of attention goes to the ECOSTRALIS, a vehicle that is especially rich in advanced technology contents and services, with optimised performance levels, low fuel consumption levels and CO2 emissions, another contribution by Iveco to the sustainability of road transport.

ECOSTRALIS is the company's most innovative proposal in this segment. It incorporates innovative product and service aspects. Regarding the product itself, the most important new features include a specific calibration of the engine control units to optimise consumption levels, the constant monitoring of tyre pressures and the special attention to the vehicle aerodynamics; as for the services, there is the remote download of the digital tachograph data, an interface equipped with a touch-screen allowing communication between the driver and the back-office and the “ring fencing”, a system that detects whether the vehicle is deviating from the set route, with a warning on the system in the back-office.

The third section is dedicated to off-road transport, epitomised by the Trakker, the ever undisputed star of quarry and site work throughout the world, and the LMV (Light Multirole Vehicle), intended for special missions: the vehicle on show is in fact used for Italian Civil Protection activities.

A specific section within the Iveco stand at the Motor Show is dedicated to innovation and the transport of the future. To represent this theme: the Iveco Glider - a concept vehicle that groups together a series of innovative solutions, the aim of which is to achieve excellent performance levels while expending the least energy possible.

Indeed, the vehicle is designed, in every detail, to optimise its energy efficiency: for example, it is equipped with high efficiency photovoltaic panels, and is able to recover it’s kinetic energy when braking. It features a new-generation thermal system and uses full-LED lighting systems both inside and outside the vehicle.

The scenery of the stand, in addition to being a product showcase, highlights how customers are always the reference point of Iveco's commercial strategy. In fact, an important place is set aside for customers and sponsors: from Scuderia Ferrari to the Fiat Yamaha Team, Coca-Cola and the Italian Civil Protection, Iveco works along side excellent companies day in and day out, to guarantee the most suitable transport vehicles to meet their particular needs.

Visitors to the show can also benefit from certain areas reserved for entertainment. Indeed, the stand offers a professional model car track where genuine tournaments with 1:43 scale model Stralis vehicles made especially for the Motor Show will be racing over the course of the day. Two of the four Stralis vehicles will be wearing the colours of Iveco sponsors linked to the racing world: Scuderia Ferrari and Fiat- Yamaha Team. In addition, for motorbike aficionados, Valentino Rossi's show-bike will be on display in the Iveco stand.

Innovation is also visible in the approach and tools used by the staff assigned to the stand and to the entertainment. In fact, each member of staff will be given an iPad to provide technical and commercial information to visitors. Iveco picked this particular communication tool, which it deems both effective and highly innovative, because it is perfectly in line with the concept that merges innovation with reality. In addition to the product information, the iPads will also contain contents related to customer services. A new way of communicating: innovative, simple and fast.

What's more, using bluetooth technology, all visitors to the stand will be sent information regarding Iveco activities, products and new features straight to their mobile phones.

To complete the Iveco exhibit, an outdoor area is envisaged, displaying eight vehicles, including a fire engine produced by Iveco Magirus, equipped with an articulated 32-metre ladder - Iveco is the world leader in the production and marketing of fire-fighting ladders -, a natural gas Stralis and a Leoncino, a medium-range vehicle produced on a Chinese platform, which will be sold outside the European markets only and that bears the name of a glorious truck sold between 1950 and 1968 by Officine Meccaniche (OM) in Brescia, which then became part of Iveco.