Green machines

EUI. What does New Holland offer in terms of competitive advantage within the construction industry?

GF. Our aim is to be a global full range manufacturer supplying the construction industry with safe, durable and productive products, as well as support services. New Holland has the capability to deliver this commitment, due to the long heritage of its former brands that provide New Holland with over 100 years of experience in the construction business. This, coupled with the backing and support from FIAT Group in terms of financial strength, and the benefits from its R&D investment in engines, process engineering, technologies, etc., offers real benefits.

EUI. How do you see technology within the construction industry driving the business in terms of environmental responsibility?

SO. This is a key area of focus for us, as part of New Holland’s mission is to respect and create a safer working environment with a lower impact in terms of pollution and noise level than was the case with previous industry construction equipment. So the New Holland product range is compliant with the European Directive concerning electrometric compatibility and noise level. The emissions of the New Tier 3A engines having been dramatically reduced and are even lower than the standard Tier 3A standards. In addition, the engines can use normal diesel with up to 20 percent of biodiesel added – a real environmentally friendly machine.

EUI. What developments and improvements do you see relating to environmental considerations for reducing emissions and noise levels?

SO. New Holland’s Crawler Excavators product range is already equipped with the integrated noise and dust reduction (iNDR) system. Low noise and easy maintenance are the benefits to this system over that of our competitors and previous model range. As an example, on the E235B SR the reduction in noise level is 5dba – which equates to the sound difference produced between a Ferrari F40 and that produced by scooter motorbike.

EUI. What does the alliance with Kobelco bring to the new Holland customer-proposition?

GF. Given that the market for construction equipment across Europe is in excess of 200,000 machines for 2007 with growth still forecasted for 2008, the crawler excavator sector represents some 50 percent of all product-derived demands. Therefore the need to ensure we can offer the most technically advanced, productive solution, with a high level of build quality, is critical in this highly dynamic and evolving industry. Kobelco is considered by the market to be a world-class leader in terms of innovation, bringing the first short radius solution to the market in the early 1990s; this is now being adopted by many of our competitors as a benchmark for the future. Also, the performance of the exactor is optimised by smart adaptive electronic control systems, which have seen a reduction in fuel consumption by up to 20 percent from the previous model range.

EUI. New Holland has been very visible in the market over the last two years. So have you seen improvements given this investment in brand awareness?

SO. This has been a great period for New Holland, with many associations with premium brands and activities – for example, our ‘James Bond Drives New Holland’ campaign, FIAT Group’s sponsorship of the Juventus football team, the Royal Dig at Buckingham Place, the British Motor Cross, SED in the UK, the New Holland Grand Prix experience held in major European countries and many more local and international fairs and event (such as Bauma and World of Concrete) – that have given us the opportunity to demonstrate the products and service capability of our customer solutions to the market. The results can be seen by the order books across the full product range and the incremental growth in business activities across all of our dealers in Europe.