Daimler Trucks achieved one of the best sales years in its history in 2018. Based on initial data, unit sales of the Mercedes-Benz, FUSO, Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Buses and BharatBenz brands increased to over 500,000 vehicles in 2018 (2017: 470,700).
The exact sales figures will be announced by Daimler AG at its annual press conference on February 6, 2019.
In a generally positive market environment, the Daimler Group’s trucks division had already increased its unit sales by eleven percent to approximately 466,900 units by the end of November, significantly more than in the same period of the previous year (January - November 2017: 422,500).
“2018 was one of the most successful years in the history of Daimler Trucks," said Martin Daum, member Daimler's Board of Management, responsible for trucks and buses. "As previously announced, our worldwide unit sales are significantly higher than in the previous year. With well over 500,000 trucks, we have achieved our highest unit sales of the past ten years. This success shows that we offer our customers around the globe strong products backed by an equally strong team. I would like to thank all my colleagues for their outstanding commitment over the past year. In 2019, we will continue pursuing the goal of making our customers – and ultimately society as well – more successful every day with innovative transport solutions. This also includes the technological transformation of our industry, which we are resolutely pushing forward with automated, electric and connected trucks."
Sales growth was in NAFTA region
Most of Daimler Trucks’ largest sales markets developed positively in the past year, with the highest growth achieved in the NAFTA region. Sales of the Freightliner, Western Star and Thomas Built Buses brands increased by 15 percent to a total of approximately 172,700 units in the first eleven months (prior-year period 150,600). With a recent market share of 38.3 percent in weight Classes 6 to 8, Daimler Trucks was the market leader for medium and heavy duty trucks in North America once again in 2018. Freightliner’s flagship, the New Cascadia, played a key role in the market success: More than 76,500 of this model have been sold since the start of production in late 2016.
In June 2018, Daimler Trucks presented the heavy duty Freightliner eCascadia and the medium duty Western Star eM2, the first all-electric series-produced trucks for the North American market. The first vehicle, a Freightliner eM2, was handed over to the major U.S. customer Penske Truck Leasing Corp. on December 20, 2018 for use in real customer operations. In the coming months, an innovation fleet of 30 all-electric trucks from Freightliner will be put into operation. Together with the Saf-T-Liner C2 electric school bus from Thomas Built Buses and the FUSO eCanter, Daimler Trucks offers the widest range of electric commercial vehicles on the North American market.
Innovations for automated driving
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on January 7, 2019, Daimler Trucks and Freightliner are announcing strategic news on the subject of automated and connected driving. Once again, Daimler Trucks is underscoring its claim to innovation leadership within the truck industry. At the same time, the company is also presenting its portfolio of electric trucks in Las Vegas, all of which are already on the road and in service with customers.
Daimler Trucks will continue pursuing its goal of setting the pace in the industry for automated, electric and connected driving in 2019. With the new Actros, Mercedes-Benz Trucks presented a vehicle to the public at the 2018 IAA Commercial Vehicles Show that has reached a new level in the heavy truck segment with its technological innovations.
The new Mercedes-Benz Actros with Active Drive Assist is the first series-production truck to enable semi-automated driving (level 2) on public roads. With Active Drive Assist, the new Actros can independently steer and brake, and significantly enhances safety in highway traffic by permanently monitoring its surroundings. Furthermore, an optimized drivetrain, the world’s first standard MirrorCam system instead of large side mirrors, and the latest generation of Active Brake Assist 5 make the new Actros one of the safest and most efficient trucks in its segment.
In the field of electric driving, Mercedes-Benz has been handing over the first eActros trucks to its customers Hermes, EDEKA, Meyer Logistik and TBS Transportbeton since October 2018 in order to test their suitability for everyday use in regular transport operations. And around one hundred of the first all-electric FUSO eCanter light truck are now in service with customers in New York, Tokyo, Berlin, London, Amsterdam and Lisbon. In June 2018, Daimler Trucks brought together all its electric activities under the umbrella of the E-Mobility Group (EMG). The E-Mobility Group defines the strategy for all electrical components and complete electric vehicles across all brands and divisions. In addition, EMG is developing a globally uniform architecture, comparable to the successful global platform strategy for conventional drive systems and main components.
Daimler Trucks is continuously working on further increasing the availability of trucks and buses, according to the company. Digitization and connectivity play a crucial role here. Daimler is a leader in connecting commercial vehicles with approximately 600,000 vehicles already connected worldwide. The Truck Data Center is the heart of all connected Daimler Trucks services. This module is the technological basis for all connectivity services such as Fleetboard and Mercedes-Benz Uptime, as well as the telematics solutions: Detroit Connect for the Freightliner brand and Truckonnekt for FUSO. Like a modern smartphone, the Truck Data Center communicates via Bluetooth, mobile telephony or GPS with the infrastructure, other vehicles and other entities involved in the logistics process. Via the Truck Data Center, a Daimler Trucks truck is permanently connected to the cloud and becomes part of the internet of things.
