DETROIT and LISLE, IL — General Motors Co. (GM) and Navistar announced Wednesday they have reached a long-term agreement to develop and assemble future medium-duty, conventional cab Class 4/5 commercial vehicles.

According to a news release, the alliance allows Navistar to strengthen its product lineup and GM to expand its Chevrolet commercial truck portfolio.

“Bringing medium-duty conventional cab trucks back into the portfolio strengthens Chevrolet’s commitment to providing commercial customers with more choices and one-stop shopping for a versatile lineup of trucks, vans and crossovers,” said Ed Peper, U.S. vice president of GM Fleet and Commercial Sales.

The future products will be jointly developed using Navistar’s expertise in rolling chassis configurations and manufacturing capabilities, and GM’s commercial components and engines.

The vehicles are slated for production in 2018 and will be manufactured at Navistar’s facility in Springfield, OH. Navistar plans to add 300 jobs and invest more than US$12 million in facility upgrades and state-of-the-art equipment to produce the new vehicles.

“Our collaboration with GM is another example of our customer-centric, open integration approach-providing our customers with the best technologies available,” said Bill Kozek, president, truck and parts, Navistar. “By working with an industry-leading company like GM, we’ll be able to enhance our medium-duty product portfolio and leverage our scale and expertise in manufacturing medium-duty trucks.”

GM offered medium-duty trucks for decades before getting out of the business in 2009 in the midst of its bankruptcy reorganization and the recession. That decision followed the death of a deal for Navistar to buy GM’s medium-duty business.

This news follows GM’s June announcement that it’s getting back into the low-cab-forward market through a deal with Isuzu.

Navistar for years built medium-duty trucks for Ford through the Blue Diamond venture, which ended last year. Ford began production of its own F-650 and F-750 this year at its Ohio plant.

–with files from Truckinginfo.com