Sales Strength in North America Lifts Daimler, Renschler Says

This story appears in the Sept. 24 print edition of Transport Topics.

HANOVER, Germany — The brisk pace of North American truck sales is helping drive the results of the world’s largest commercial vehicles maker, according to its chief executive.

Andreas Renschler, who runs Daimler Trucks and Buses, told a crowd of journalists here Sept. 18 at the world’s largest truck show that sales in the United States and Japan are helping make up for slowing sales in parent Daimler A.G.’s home territory of Europe.

He said the company was forecasting North American truck and van sales would grow between 10% and 20% during 2012.

“Daimler Trucks [North America] was actually able to outperform this forecast . . . by achieving a sales increase of 27% in the Nafta region through August — possibly a new record,” Renschler said.

Year-to-date, he said van sales in the United States are up by almost 30%.

He also said Daimler’s retail truck and van sales in North America during August were the highest in more than five years.

Daimler sells Freightliner and Western Star trucks in North America as well as vans under the Daimler and Freightliner nameplates.

Some developing countries also are doing well, he said, including Brazil and Russia, while India and Europe lag. Daimler’s efforts in China are also just now getting under way.

“In short,” he said, “the sun isn’t exactly shining everywhere, but the overall outlook is solid.”

Renschler kicked off the International Motor Show here with a speech. The show runs through Sept. 27 and features 1,800 exhibitors from 46 nations.

Renschler cited Daimler’s global reach as an important stabilizing factor for the truck maker, saying that thriving business in some regions was able to balance off regions where business was stagnant or shrinking.

At a press event on Sept. 17, he said he was optimistic for the future, citing a forecast from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that motor freight would more than triple worldwide by 2050.

Renschler said demand for heavy- and medium-duty trucks is likely to grow by almost 40% to almost 4 million vehicles by 2020, with much of that growth coming from Brazil, Russia, India and China, the so-called BRIC countries.

“Until every production plant, every supermarket and every consumer’s home has its very own harbor, airport or train station, trucks will always have one major advantage — they get the freight where it’s needed and when it’s needed,” Renschler said.

He said trucking also is facing some difficult challenges, including ever-rising fuel costs, ever-tightening emissions regulations, growing traffic congestion and safety issues.

Renschler said the company is helping tackle some of these issues by looking to alternative fuels and propulsion systems, and by making its trucks more fuel efficient.

In general, he said, European original equipment manufacturers have increased the fuel efficiency of their vehicles by 30% since the 1970s.

Renschler predicted that Daimler and its competitors would meet the region’s next goal of raising fuel efficiency and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020 from 2005 levels.

He also said that he felt it was “realistic” that OEMs in Europe would increase fuel efficiency by another 10% by 2030.

Renschler said that trucks in Europe currently emit 87% less nitrogen oxide then they did in the 1990s.

He said Daimler has become the first truck maker to sell a hybrid-powered truck that saves fleets enough money to cover the additional costs of the propulsion system within a reasonable time.

Renschler said that the Canter Eco Hybrid medium-duty truck produced by its Fuso subsidiary in Japan allows customers to “recoup the additional cost . . . in three to four years.”