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Shift in role models at Paccar

A new DAF designed for Australian conditions is likely to be launched in 2024

 

Behind the glitz and glamour of Kenworth’s recent K220 launch was news of major management shuffles at Paccar Australia, led by the return to the US of chief engineer Noelle Parlier after a highly successful stint in Australia.

Most notably though, Brad May is moving from sales and marketing director to fill Parlier’s demanding chief engineer’s role.

From the outside looking in, May’s move signals a seismic shift in Paccar Australia’s engineering focus as an entirely new cab-over currently under development at DAF facilities in Europe, specifically designed for the Australian and New Zealand markets, draws closer to completion and a likely launch in 2024.

Regarded by many as an extremely astute and highly practical proponent of customer needs, Brad May’s input into the new model’s specification – along with Paccar Australia’s product development director Ross Cureton and the company’s local engineering team – will be vital in ensuring a truck tailored specifically to Australian needs.


RELATED ARTICLE: The new K220 – the evolution of an icon


Despite a reputation as a rusted-on Kenworth addict, May concedes that Paccar’s biggest potential rests with DAF. “It has taken a very long time and it hasn’t been an easy road with Kenworth as the cultural base (but) DAF is now a critical part of the Paccar culture,” he said several years ago during a DAF presentation in Brisbane.

As we’ve written before, none of this is to infer or foolishly predict that Kenworth won’t continue to reign supreme. Far from it. Paccar principals are much too clever and the Kenworth brand too respected and deeply ingrained in the market’s mindset for such cataclysmic upheaval to occur in just one or two generations.

Kenworth is king but have no doubt, in the cab-over class, the Paccar pendulum is swinging more and more to a Dutch touch.

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