As Navistar prepares to roll out its new S13 powertrain in International trucks, it will make its entire suite of connected services free of charge for five years.

The S13 is Navistar’s first powertrain developed alongside its new parent company Traton Group. It was shown to the industry for the first time at a major reveal event in Las Vegas in August.

At the American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition, Navistar shared its plans to standardize and offer free of charge its connected vehicle offerings including: OnCommand Connection remote diagnostics; Premium Intelligent Fleet Care reports including fuel analytics and predictive health monitoring; over-the-air software and parameter updates; gateway integrations for third-party telematics platforms; and the International 360 service communication tool.

“As we prepare for the market introduction of the S13 integrated powertrain, our dealer network is committed to the investments necessary to ensure not only a successful sale of the product but comprehensive service and support throughout the operation of this new powertrain,” said Göran Nyberg, executive vice-president, commercial operations. “Our ambition is to create the most value from the products and services International offers to the marketplace.”

In a one-on-one interview with TruckNews.com, Nyberg said making the connected services free for five years will benefit customers and the manufacturer, alike. Customers get access to the full range of connectivity offerings at no cost, while Navistar will add significantly to its data collection. That will prove useful as the OEM progresses towards more predictive maintenance and predictive repair services in the future.

“I think it’s a win-win and it’s a key enabler for us in the future,” Nyberg said. “We are just scratching the surface on connectivity and digitalization. There’s so much more we can do with data. We have a lot of data today…it might be that we need more data points in the future to widen the scope when it comes to predictive repairs.”

Offering the services free for five years will not only cover the entire life-cycle for most primary buyers, but will also carry over to the secondary buyer, potentially exposing them to some of the covered connectivity services for the first time.

And because OnCommand Connection is an all-makes platform, the company will also be collecting data from other brands of trucks, pointed out Diane Hames, Navistar’s chief marketing officer.

Nyberg said customer reaction to the S13 has been “fantastic.”