Daimler Trucks said is about to reach its sales target for 2013 and to deliver more trucks than in any year since 2006. Despite having to contend with a comparatively difficult market environment, the company said it benefited from its global presence and from its technologically leading product range that is customized for each region.
“Daimler Trucks did very well this year, thanks to our extremely attractive product lineup and our growth offensive in new markets. Shortly before the end of the year, we expect that we will surpass last year’s sales figure of 462,000 units, as we previously announced, and thus achieve the best sales result since 2006”, said Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, the Daimler AG Board of Management Member responsible for Daimler Trucks and Daimler Buses, about the sales development to date. In the first 11 months of the year, the division delivered 433,600 vehicles of the Mercedes-Benz, Fuso, Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Buses and BharatBenz brands. As a result, sales were two percent higher than in the same period last year, when 424,000 units were sold.
Based on first data for December, Daimler Trucks expects to close 2013 with an encouraging sales growth for the full year. The final global sales figures will be presented at Daimler’s annual press conference on February 6, 2014.
Commenting on the outlook for 2014, Bernhard said: “Of course we plan to share in the moderate growth that the global truck market is expected to achieve in 2014. However, it’s still too early to make any predictions, because key regions continue to face uncertainties. For example in Europe it remains to be seen, how the introduction of the new emission standard Euro VI will affect sales in the first half of the year. It’s clear, however, that we have once again made major progress this year toward reaching our goal of selling more than 500,000 trucks in 2015. We are continuing to do all we can to strengthen our position as the leading global truck manufacturer. To achieve this, we are also systematically implementing our strategies for the respective sales regions.”
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