Daimler Truck builds more heavy commercial vehicles than any rival
Freightliner rigs on American highways, FUSO trucks in Japan, BharatBenz in India and Thomas Built school buses all answer to one German headquarters in Leinfelden-Echterdingen. Daimler Truck, spun off from Daimler AG and listed on the stock market in December 2021, calls itself the world's largest commercial vehicle manufacturer.
Eight vehicle brands sit under its truck and bus divisions: Western Star and Freightliner in North America, Mercedes-Benz and the coach maker Setra in Europe, FUSO and RIZON, BharatBenz, and Thomas Built Buses. A separate financial services arm offers loans and mobility services to customers. Detroit Diesel supplies powertrains in the United States, while TruckStore handles used vehicles, leasing and buybacks. In trucks weighing over 6 tons it leads the global market, delivering roughly 489,000 of them in 2019. Around 100,000 people work across more than 35 main sites.
The company existed as a Daimler AG subsidiary only from 2019. Plans to separate it were announced in February 2021, and shareholders gave approval on 1 October. Daimler AG kept 35 per cent of the new holding company, with another 5 per cent going to its pension trust, before trading began on 10 December.
Money flows from several continents. In 2019 the truck business earned €40.2 billion in revenue and the bus arm €4.7 billion, selling 30,888 buses, with strong positions in Europe, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. North American markets were the largest outlet in 2018, taking 37 per cent of sales, ahead of Asia on 32 per cent. At the end of 2018 the trucks division employed 82,953 people, including 30,447 in Germany and 16,647 in the United States.
Cooperation now reaches Japan too. Archion, a holding company set up in June 2025 and operating from April 2026, joins Daimler's FUSO with Toyota's Hino, with each parent holding 25 per cent. The start date was chosen to line up with the Japanese fiscal year, which begins in April.
Source: Daimler Truck
