The reply could be used for both arguments ....
My comments have no bearing on wether they lead anything! Why you would say that? .... puzzle's me!
Can you imagine how much money has been thrown into the electric drive project that is over a year behind? They havent even got any field follow machine's hauling real dirt yet. I wouldn't gamble my Word they will have them hauling by the end of 09!
You cannot enter and lead a market that you know nothing about.
And regard's to the leading the world statement? ..... The dont lead any Loading or hauling market here.
I understand that your comment had no bearing on whether or not they led anything. My comment was to imply that Cat is comfortable with not hurrying an electric drive truck to market, as an ED lineup will only complement an already dominant mechanical drive lineup.
I know exactly how much money is being "dumped" into the project. And whether they have them hauling by the end of 2009 truly is of little importance. Remember the wheel motor issues with the Komatsu 960s? Field Development trucks sat around for what seemed to be an eternity while issues were sorted. Better that it happen during development than during production, but Cat can't afford those kinds of mistakes. Cat is trying to get away from fixing quality issues after releasing for production, so field development is critical. Komatsu has the ED truck market cornered at the moment, and it would be a huge folly for Cat to release a truck that isn't ready. While there are markets that are dominated by Cat (Newmont, BHPB), there are markets where Cat has little population (Rio Tinto). Customer acceptance of the technology isn't an issue. Acceptance of the technology bearing the Cat brand will be - especially if they don't commit to releasing a quality product.
And Alco said it very well. The biggest obstacle at the moment? economic downturn. Budget cuts will slow the release of this truck more so than development problems.
And let's remember, Cat was in this game before. It's also important to note that we don't have a bunch of rookie engineers working on this. Cat currently has many Komatsu and GE expats on their payroll. These guys know AC drive - they helped make it happen for Komatsu.
I'll also defer to Alco's wisdom regarding my "world leader" comment.