Daimler Trucks will nearly sell 500,000 trucks in 2014. Despite partly difficult market conditions, the world’s leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles succeeded in increasing deliveries to 445,300 units in the first eleven months of 2014, an increase by three percent over the same period last year.
Based on first December figures Daimler Trucks assumes to finish 2014 with a considerably positive sales growth reaching nearly 500,000 units. Final worldwide sales figures will be published at Daimler’s annual press conference on February, 5th, 2015. In 2013, Daimler Trucks sold about 484,200 vehicles of the Mercedes-Benz, FUSO, Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Buses and BharatBenz brands.
“Our intense efforts in all regions are paying dividends. Despite many economic challenges in some key markets, we can look back on 12 successful months. With almost 500,000 trucks sold we are already coming very close to our target envisaged for 2015,” said Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Daimler Trucks & Buses.
For commercial vehicles, 2014 was dominated by developments that varied widely by regions. Weak economic prospects but also political uncertainties put a strain on the market development in Latin America. In Europe, sales were impacted by the lack of dynamic economic development in addition to the introduction of the new Euro VI emissions standards and the difficult political situation in Eastern Europe. The situation is very different in North America and Japan: In these markets Daimler benefited from the strong overall local business environment for commercial vehicles.
“We scored points with our strong products. With a strong sales team and vehicles perfectly tailored to the particular customer needs we managed to increase our market positions in many key regions,” said Bernhard.
One major reason for the high market acceptance for trucks from Daimler is the extremely competitive total cost of ownership (TCO) of the vehicles, which is the most important argument for buyers of trucks as a capital good. Enhanced efficiency for the good of the customer is paramount in all regions, for all brands and for all vehicle models. This is especially true for the Actros certified to Euro VI standards in Europe, for the current NAFTA bestseller, the Freightliner Cascadia Evolution, and for the FUSO Super Great V in Japan. All three models are pioneers in terms of fuel efficiency.
About the prospects for the coming year Bernhard said:
“With our global presence, our technological leadership and our intelligent platform strategy we are well prepared to react swiftly and appropriately to unpredictabilities in the economic environment. That is why we at Daimler Trucks will continue to work steadily on further expanding our position as the world’s leading truck manufacturer in 2015.”
