Escalent, a data analytics and advisory firm with a market-leading automotive practice, announced it has acquired Rhein Associates and secured a partnership with Work Truck Solutions to create a commercial vehicle and fleet research and advisory practice..

For nearly five decades, Escalent’s Automotive & Mobility practice has been guiding global brands by delivering market insights and developing human-centric products, services, and technology. Rhein Associates is a provider of North American commercial vehicle and off-highway powertrain forecasting data, known for providing the industry with accurate, thorough, and relevant databases, analyses, and insight.

“The rate of change in the automotive industry is exponential, and we are committed to expanding our expertise and continuing to anticipate our clients’ needs to guide them through disruption,” said Melissa Sauter, CEO of Escalent. “These strategic moves advance our objective to deliver meaningful market insights and guidance to our clients as they navigate the rapidly transforming commercial vehicle and fleet ecosystem.”

According to a release, it’s best known for its main offering, the Rhein Report, which clients rely on for market intelligence and perspective to inform their business strategy. The acquisition allows Escalent to combine forecasted production (supply-side) data with its existing primary and syndicated Fleet Advisory Hub (demand-side) data.

Add to that a partnership with Work Truck Solutions, an authority on commercial vehicles, which provides a one-stop commercial vehicle inventory management, operational analytics, and digital marketing solution that maximizes commercial sales, customer relationships and profitability for dealers and their business buyers. This partnership gives Escalent the ability to combine Work Truck Solutions’ extensive commercial vehicle inventory dataset with Rhein Associates’ and Escalent’s data specialties to create new, powerful joint offerings that do not exist elsewhere in the market.

“We keep a sharp focus on the changing needs of commercial vehicle shoppers, especially given the evolution of the industry, and we work hard to develop new products, strategies and partnerships to meet those needs,” said Kathryn Schifferle, chief vision officer of Work Truck Solutions. “Partnering with Escalent is another example of how we’re continuously looking to provide even more robust data to improve the B2B shopping process.”

Together, the release noted that Escalent will lead the way with commercial vehicle data and advisory solutions that will arm clients with a unified, 360-degree view of the industry to help clients grow their businesses.