Deere and Hitachi? Whats going on?

[CM1995]

Well the local Volvo, Kobelco, Tak dealer picked up Hitachi excavators as well.

Halfway expected the local Deere dealer to sell side by side as they had in the past. Used to see orange and yellow excavators on the same lot. Maybe there is something about co-dealing the split?

 

[JD955SC]

I really wonder what either company was thinking. As far as I'm concerned, Deere had it made with Hitachi's technology and Hitachi had it made with Deere's parts distribution. In the mid to late 90's when Totem Equipment was still in business in Seattle and Portland they were the top Hitachi excavator dealer in sales for North America, now a year or so after the split there still doesn't appear to be a Hitachi dealer in Washington yet. A number of guys from the area asked the Hitachi people at ConExpo this spring and were told that nothing had been decided yet. Setting up a whole new dealer network in these times seems foolish to me, unless they plan to steal techs from Pape and other brands who are all having difficulty finding good help already.

In my area the non major brands (as in not Cat, Deere, Volvo or Komatsu) end up being serviced by much smaller dealers who may only have a couple locations in the state but they represent a lot of brands. I have a good friend who went to work for one of these second string dealers and he really likes working for them but says getting service info and parts can be a real issue…the dealer may rep these brands but the feeling doesn’t seem mutual when the dealer needs support.

 

[Welder Dave]

This is what John Deere put out 2/28/22 with regard to the Americas and Hitachi etc.

John Deere Acquires Deere-Hitachi Factories, Begins New Agreements

John Deere has acquired full ownership of Deere-Hitachi joint venture factories and has begun new agreements with Hitachi Construction Machinery.

www.deere.com

Of course Deere are going to act like they are the ones with all the latest inovations. 1 in 4 excavators sold were Hitachi back in UH series days. I don't think Deere excavators would have sold nearly as well without the Hitachi joint venture. I mentioned previous if you wanted a 300 size Hitachi you had to buy an 892 Deere. I think they were pretty popular but I think a lot of the buyers would have bought Hitachi if they had a choice. The guy I knew surely preferred Hitachi after running them for quite a few years.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot more Hitachi's now they are on their own.

 

[Welder Dave]

Th

As far as I know the 690E had a Hitachi built cab but did not use the Hitachi hydraulics.

That's quite possible as the 690E was made during the joint venture and JD Hitachi's were sold at the same time.