Daimler Trucks North America Reports Sales Figures
The President & CEO of Daimler Trucks North America, Martin Daum, says he is “cautiously optimistic” about 2013 and that sales this year “are too good to complain, but not good enough to dance on the table”.
Sales for Class 6-8 trucks are up 9% from last year’s 305,000 to to 332,000 showing some growth even during these rough economic times. DTNA had originally predicted this year’s sales to reach 378,000 and has revised their prediction to fall at 332,000 units for the year. Daum thinks that the NAFTA market will continue on in this pattern of slow growth through 2020 bringing the annual average to 375,000. Despite the drop in sales the past few years, last decade the average was 362,500 and 346,00 in the 90’s, so this projected trend of growth seems possible.
Andreas Renschler, a member of the Daimler AG Board of Management, had encouraging words, “The good thing is DTNA’s growth is outpacing the market’s [growth] – our sales went up by almost a third compared to last year”.
“The good news is the good years of the next decade are ahead of us – the question is will they come?” said Daum. “We have a cautiously optimistic view of 2013, and then at some point, demand should pick up. We don’t know when the next peak starts – we only know that it will happen one day overnight.”
So what should be expected for 2013? DTNA hopes for continued growth in 2013. They are confident in the anticipated Cascadia Evolution as an industry leading product, that will also help to shift the demand from manual to the DT12 automated transmission.
The press release from Freightliner came out the end of May, referring to the Cascadia Evolution as “featuring some of the most advanced aerodynamic enhancements in the industry”.
“With the introduction of the Cascadia and Detroit DD15® in 2007, our priority was to help customers lower their total cost of ownership through improved fuel efficiency and performance. The Cascadia and the DD15 have since made a powerful impression on businesses.”