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Iveco is hoping that a makeover of its Stralis range being unveiled in six weeks' time will help boost its market share, both in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Last year the Stralis captured only 4.1% of the British tractor unit market - down from 4.9% in 2005. In Western Europe as a whole, Iveco's share of the heavy market last year was around 11%. Chief executive Paulo Monferino said last week that he wanted Iveco "to jump to number one", which would mean at least matching Mercedes' current  16% share. And journalists were invited to Monaco last week to hear of the announcement of Iveco's four-year sponsorship of the New Zealand All-Blacks rugby team, where they were given a sneak preview of the updated Stralis.

The familiar cab shell is retained, though there are new Cube and SuperCube derivatives offering increased internal headroom. Monferino said he was confident that driver appeal would be increased by the new cab interior, while the front panel grille and badging is freshened to identify the upgraded specification. Drivelines remain essentially unchanged, though Monferino revealed that a more powerful version of the biggest, 12.9-litre, Cursor 13 engine is in the pipeline. It will, he says, deliver at least 600hp, matching the flagship power units of major rivals, notably Volvo and Mercedes. Any decision to allow much heavier - up to 60 tonnes gross - combinations on European roads (for which Sweden, Finland and Holland especially are lobbying the EU) would,  says Monferino, be likely to bring forward the higher rating's availability.

He added that the latest changes to Stralis have been made as part of a major operation aimed at higher quality and overall reliability, a key element of which has been a detailed analysis of faults occurring in service, which Iveco calls its TGW ('things gone wrong') programme. During 2008, Iveco's middleweight (6-18-tonne) Eurocargo range will be 'renewed', he says, though no details were revealed. But the expectation is that an all-new cab will be a pre-requisite for Iveco to stem the Eurocargo's loss of market share in key territories like the UK, against more modern competitors, notably from Daf and MAN.