Navistar recently announced it’ll be offering the Cummins ISB mid-range engine in its International DuraStar medium-duty trucks. Bill Kozek, president of North America Truck and Parts with Navistar, emphasized the company is not exiting the engine business, and will continue to offer its MaxxForce engines. Customers can now choose between the Cummins ISB with SCR, or the EGR-only MaxxForce. Bill said Navistar has enough credits that it can continue offering its EGR-only engine into next year.

The move is expected to jumpstart sales of medium-duty trucks, while expediting Navistar’s transition to an all-SCR product line. While on a conference call to announce availability of the ISB, Bill also said orders for International’s Class 8 trucks are strengthening. Order share for the current quarter is 20.4%, compared to Navistar’s retail market share of 14% over the same period.

“Our Class 8 order share is coming back,” Bill said. “We’re encouraged by this type of response.” They better be. The very next day, Navistar announced it lost US$247 million in the third quarter, and would slash more jobs to reduce costs. The company may have turned the corner in terms of product, but it’s not yet all sunshine and butterflies in Navistar’s world.