USA / Japan - January saw the start of pre-production assembly of Hino’s XL-Series Class7/8 trucks in the USA on a brand new production line installed in a new plant in Mineral Wells, West Virginia, USA. Dominik Beckman, Director, Marketing and Dealer Operations, Hino Trucks said the company had started taking orders for the new XL Series truck in December 2018 with deliveries targeted for May of this year.

The new heavy-duty specialty truck was launched officially approximately one year ago at the American Towman show in Baltimore, USA by the Novi, Michigan-based Hino Motors Sales USA Inc (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tokyo’s Hino Motors Ltd, itself a Toyota Group Company). The all-new XL Series Class 7 and Class 8 trucks were launched respectively with a vehicle carrier body (Miller Industries LCG16 Series carrier) and heavy-duty tow truck body (Miller Industries Century 3212 G2 medium-duty wrecker). The vehicles featured new active safety solutions with electronic stability control (standard on tractors) and collision mitigation systems, payload management suspension options, and a body builder fitment friendly optimized design, and also engineered for maximum ease of serviceability.