Volvo CEO Favors Incentives to Help ’07 Engine Sales

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OUISVILLE, Ky. — Peter Karlsten, chief executive officer of Volvo Trucks North America, said he supported incentives to help spur sales of model-year 2007 heavy-duty engines that will have more stringent emissions controls than current models.

Karlsten said the new models would be more expensive and that incentives would be needed to avoid or minimize advance purchases of older models, which could lead to disruption in truck manufacturing.

“It’s in everybody’s interest that we try to smooth out the divergence so that we don’t have these big variations and a big fall in 2007. Nobody can benefit from that, not our customers, not ourselves, not the suppliers,” Karlsten said in an interview with Transport Topics.

Industry observers have predicted a pre-buy boom-bust cycle in 2007 similar to 2002 if incentives to buy the new models are not made available.

For the full story, see the April 5 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.