International to add a second shift at San Antonio in early 2027 as output nears 100 trucks a day

International Motors will introduce a second shift at its San Antonio truck assembly plant in 2027 to meet growing demand after already increasing output in 2026, according to Transport Topics on Oct. 21, reporting comments by the company's top executive on the sidelines of the American Trucking Associations' Management Conference and Exhibition in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The plant is set to produce around 100 trucks a day in the fourth quarter of 2026, and that total will nearly double when the second shift is complete, President and CEO Mathias Carlbaum said. The company began recruiting staff for the shift over the past few months. Exactly when in 2027 the shift starts is still to be fully determined: "It is going to happen. [The introduction is] going to happen throughout next year. At what point? We still can move a month or two back or forth, but in early '27, we will be stepping up production in San Antonio," Carlbaum said.

The San Antonio plant is International's only assembly plant in the United States — a 900,000-square-foot facility that began operations in 2022 and builds Classes 6-8 diesel and electric vehicles, with a general assembly line, body shop, paint shop, logistics center and a center for on-site aftermarket modifications. The first public indications of the second shift came in late July, when Traton Group Chief Financial Officer Michael Jackstein said on the company's second-quarter earnings call that increasing the San Antonio workforce was a possibility, citing the ongoing demand upcycle and plans to raise International's share of North American Class 8 truck sales.

The demand is visible in the numbers. International's sales of trucks and buses jumped 48% year over year in the third quarter and rose 22.8% from the second quarter, according to Traton on Oct. 12; the company sold 19,900 vehicles in the quarter, compared with 13,400 a year earlier. Output at International's Escobedo plant in Mexico is climbing as well — September production more than doubled year over year to 4,015 vehicles from 1,895, after 4,525 trucks in August, up 100.8% from 2,253 in August 2025. Daimler Truck North America's Freightliner division built 9,064 trucks at its Mexican plants in September, up 173% from 3,320 a year earlier, and Daimler and Volvo Trucks North America have also increased head counts at their U.S. production plants in recent months for the same reason.