GM Hires Navistar to Help Make Commercial Vans

Navistar International Inc. says it has been hired by General Motors Co. to make cutaway versions of GM’s Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana commercial vans in the U.S.

Cutaways are vehicles with a cab but no body and are used by independent outfitters to make specialty vehicles such as ambulances. GM will supply the body shells, and Navistar with mount them on chassis and install their interiors.

Offloading cutaway production to Navistar will free up capacity at GM’s pickup truck plant in Wentzville, Mo., to build about 40,000 more of the company’s popular Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickup trucks next year, a source tells Automotive News. The source says earlier talks with AM General Corp. to make the cutaways collapsed.

GM has been struggling to keep up with demand for the Colorado and Canyon since the pickups were introduced in 2014. AN says dealer supplies of both trucks remain below normal.