Who Owns Kenworth And Where Are The Trucks Made?

With the slogan "World's Best Truck," it's no longer surprising that Kenworth has become synonymous with American trucking. It's one of the oldest heavy-duty truck manufacturers in the United States, following Mack in 1900 and International Trucks in 1902. Kenworth initially gained popularity for allowing the clients to customize the trucks to their specific needs. However, before long, it also began introducing groundbreaking innovations like vertical exhausts, sleeper cabs, and aluminum bumpers that further cemented its name in the industry.

This top status of the company remains intact today. In fact, in 2020 alone, Kenworth held almost 16% of the Class 8 truck market in the United States and Canada, and nearly 12% of the medium-duty truck retail sales. Three of its current flagship models are the T880 work truck for the construction site, the T680 on-highway truck for aerodynamic driving, and the W990 conventional truck for long-haul operations.

Now, let's take a look under the hood of Kenworth's ownership and global production presence.

Kenworth is owned by the American truck manufacturer PACCAR. Interestingly, PACCAR's history dates back to 1905, even preceding the establishment of Kenworth itself. In the beginning, PACCAR was originally known as the Seattle Car Manufacturing Company. Its operations revolved around building railway and logging equipment, such as railway cars and power winches.

It wasn't until 1945 that PACCAR, then known as Pacific Car and Foundry, acquired Kenworth. This marked its very first venture into the heavy-duty truck segment. Over a decade later, it also acquired Peterbilt and Dart Truck Company, and soon after, became an international truck maker. Today, PACCAR carries the truck brands Kenworth, Peterbilt, and DAF and produces diesel engines too.

Before PACCAR's acquisition in 1945, though, Kenworth was actually operating as a standalone company. It was founded by Harry Kent and Edgar Worthington in Seattle, Washington, in 1923. Since its early days, the company has primarily focused on truck production, which quickly expanded. What started out as just 80 trucks in the first year grew to two per week, and eventually to 250 a year. As the company evolved, it began to make a name for itself in the industry. It was the first ever American truck maker to use diesel engines and develop an integrated sleeper cab and cab-over-engine truck. After a century, Kenworth remains one of the top semi-truck brands in the United States, with innovations like zero emissions, a battery-based no-idle system, and remote diagnostics.

When Kenworth was starting out, it was developing its trucks in its first-ever plant in Seattle. Now, the company's manufacturing footprint spans across the globe. The biggest Kenworth production facility — and also one of the oldest — is in Chillicothe, Ohio. Housed in a 622,000 square-foot factory on 120 acres of land, the Chillicothe site has been standing since 1974 and has pushed out over 782,000 trucks since its opening. It handles multiple processes, such as assembly and painting.

Kenworth's other US-based facility is located in Renton, Washington. This 300,000-square-foot factory was established in 1993 and is where Kenworth's 700,000th truck was built in 2005. Specializing in assembly, the Renton location manufactures the medium-duty models T370s and T440s, as well as the heavy-duty models C500, K500, T680, T800, T880, W900, and 963.

Outside the US, Kenworth operates a manufacturing facility in Canada, specifically in Ste-Thérèse, Quebec. The assembly plant is technically PACCAR's and is where Peterbilt trucks are made, too. Then, there's a Kenworth facility in Mexicali, Mexico, originally founded in 1959 and expanded in 1970. It serves not only the US market but also the businesses in Australia, Colombia, Honduras, Israel, Nicaragua, and Peru. Just like the Quebec plant, the Mexico location rolls out Peterbilt trucks on top of Kenworth models.

To serve the Australian market, Kenworth expanded its operations to Bayswater, Melbourne, in 1970, a decade after the first US-produced Kenworth truck was imported to the country. The 56,000-square-foot site has since manufactured at least 90,000 trucks for clients in Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea.