DTNA Predicts Year of High Truck Sales, Technology Advancements
DTNA President and CEO Roger Nielsen talks to reporters about meeting customer demands for trucks, uptime, and technology. (Video call screen capture.)
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Coming off of a record year for North American Class 6-8 market share in 2017, Daimler Trucks North America is looking forward to a busy year as it keeps on top of its supply chain to meet high customer demand and readies for some big new-technology announcements.
In a video conference call for reporters, DTNA President and CEO Roger Nielsen teased upcoming announcements about predictive maintenance, electric trucks, and further advanced driver assistance systems that can lead to autonomous technologies.
The Truck Sales Challenge: Staying on Top of Demand
Around the world, Daimler Trucks last year sold more than 470,000 trucks last year. In North America, Daimler Trucks North America posted record Class 6-8 market share of 39.8%, or about 151,000 trucks, buses and chassis.
Driving that success, Nielsen said, were:
- more than 46,000 orders for the new Cascadia
- increasing popularity of the integrated Detroit powertrain, with 96% of all Cascadias spec’ed with Detroit engines. The DT12 automated manual transmission goes into 75% of all Cascadias and Western Star 5700 (93% in the new-generation Cascadia).
- Detroit Assurance 4.0, the latest version of DTNA’s active safety system suite, which uses a camera system and radar to provide adaptive cruise control, emergency braking, lane departure warning, etc. “The penetration rate far exceeds what we expected,” Nielsen noted, saying it’s spec’ed in nearly 90% of Cascadias.
- Western Star was at an all-time high for order intake.
- Aftermarket parts sales; 2017 saw another parts distribution center open in Indianapolis, and Daimler expanded with its acquisition of the Mascot driveline reman business.
For 2018, DTNA expects a “significant increase in overall sales,” to levels seen in 2015, if market conditions remain sustainable. January and February order intakes so far …Read the rest of this story
