AGCO held the North American launch for its new IDEAL axial combine series in Regina, SK, on Tuesday, coinciding with the start of Canada’s Farm Progress Show.
As we’ve covered previously on RealAgriculture (at Agritechnica in Germany here and the prior launch in Italy here), the IDEAL combine represents AGCO’s largest ever product development project, with the company redesigning the combine from a blank sheet of paper with efficiency and capacity boosting in mind.
The unveiling in Regina, however, included a surprise: the IDEAL will be sold as a Fendt machine in North America.
When the combine was launched globally in Europe, the company said it planned to sell the IDEAL combine across its three axial combine brand platforms: Massey Ferguson, Challenger, and Fendt.
For North America, the IDEAL will only be part of the Fendt brand family, said the company on Tuesday.
“When you look at the technology that we’ve built in and the unrelenting up-time that’s built into it, Fendt is the brand that ties to IDEAL so well,” says Caleb Schleder, tactical marketing manager for combines with AGCO, in the video below.
The company says having the IDEAL available in one brand in North America enables it to “focus on providing the best customer experience for our IDEAL customers as well as providing exceptional aftersales service to keep our customers in the field longer.”
“We still offer the Massey Ferguson and Challenger combines today,” notes Schleder. AGCO also plans to continue building transverse rotor combines under its Gleaner brand.
There will be a limited demo launch for the IDEAL across North America in 2018, with a full retail launch through Fendt dealers in 2019.
Related:
- AGCO unveils IDEAL combines for Challenger, Fendt & Massey Ferguson brands
- TechTour: Designing the IDEAL combine
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