By Carole Vaporean

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Caterpillar Inc.'s (CAT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) mining division plans to start showing electric trucks to top customers as soon as later this year, and to introduce them commercially in late 2008, the unit's chief said on Wednesday.

"We have pilots running now. We're still a little ways away from delivering a commercial truck," Chris Curfman, president of Caterpillar Global Mining, told Reuters on the sidelines of the CRU World Copper Conference here.

"We're going to be looking to the Mining Expo in September '08 for some fairly aggressive introductions," he said.

Caterpillar will show some of the trucks on a test basis to a few large customers for feedback while still in development, he said.

"We'll be sharing on a confidential basis that program with two or three very large customers we have alliances with," Curfman said.

Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar, the world's largest construction and mining equipment maker, is catching up with Tokyo-based competitor Komatsu Ltd. (6301.T: Quote, Profile, Research), which has had an electric hauling truck on the market for years.

Unlike Komatsu, the world's No. 2 heavy equipment maker, Caterpillar has been developing its electric trucks in-house. It made an exception for the software that runs the trucks by forming a joint venture with a Mitsubishi subsidiary.

"This is very different from all of our competitors, who purchase components from other companies," Curfman said.

Development will take longer, he said, but Caterpillar expects to gain more efficiencies from an in-house system, in part because of customer feedback during the process.

Forming 25 alliances around the world with 15 of its dealerships has allowed Caterpillar to collaborate with its customers during the planning process, Curfman said.

"It's a real open-book type of discussion with our customers. The days of 'How many trucks can you build?' and 'How many do you want?' are over," he said. "Everything's on the table with an alliance, meaning that we're working together on design features, deliveries, and those are all in confidentiality agreements."

"We don't just turn our technology over to anybody," he added. "But with that agreement you can cut through the bureaucracy."

Moreover, Curfman said, customer alliances have allowed the Caterpillar to thrive during a period of intense consolidation in the mining industry.

He cited Caterpillar's alliance with Brazilian mining giant CVRD, which recently acquired Canadian miner Inco, noting that "now that they are together we will start earning more of Inco's business."

Source: Reuters 

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