DTNA Truck, Bus Sales Dip 2.35% Year Over Year in 2024
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Daimler Truck North America sold 190,428 vehicles in 2024, down 2.35% from 195,014 in 2023, parent company Daimler Truck said Jan. 14.
DTNA, which is based in Portland, Ore., produces Class 8 trucks under the Freightliner and Western Star brands. Freightliner’s Cascadia tractor is North America’s best-selling Class 8 rig.
Freightliner sold 86,470 Class 8 trucks in 2024, down 11.2% from 97,370 in the year-ago period, according to the latest Wards Intelligence data, also released Jan. 14.
Western Star sold 11,612 trucks in 2024, up 39.5% compared with 8,326 purchases in 2023, the Wards data show.
Freightliner sales have been hurt by the weaker U.S. freight environment, while Western Star’s numbers benefited from the strong appetite for vocational trucks over the past 12 months.
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DTNA was one of the strongest performing Daimler Truck units of the past 12 months.
Germany-based Daimler Truck sold 460,409 trucks and buses overall in the 12 months that ended Dec. 31, down 12.5% from 526,053 in 2023.
The company’s Mercedes-Benz Trucks division sold 126,477 vehicles in 2024, down 20.2% compared with 158,511 trucks in 2023, while its Asian trucks unit sold 125,234 vehicles in 2024, down 22.3% compared with 161,171 a year earlier.
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Daimler Truck took a $130.8 million write-down in July on the value of its Chinese joint venture, Beijing Foton Daimler Automotive, because of a persistently weak market in Asia’s largest economy.
In August, the company cut its full-year revenue expectations as a result of the slump in Asian and European demand for trucks.
Daimler Truck profits in the third quarter of 2024 slumped 35% year over year to $676.6 million from $1.033 billion. The company reports its earnings in euros, and all conversions were correct as of Nov. 7.
Daimler Buses fared best of all the company’s units, seeing a 1.8% increase in full-year sales to 26,646 vehicles from 26,168 in 2023.
Daimler Truck will release its full-year earnings, including a breakdown of DTNA figures, on March 14, the company said. An outlook for 2025 is also scheduled for March.
The eActros 600 on display at IAA Transportation 2024 in Germany. (Joe Howard/Transport Topics)
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz Trucks received a boost to its sales figures for the current year as logistics giant Amazon placed a record order for 200 eActros 600 battery-electric heavy-duty trucks. The purchase is both the division’s largest electric truck order and Amazon’s biggest electric heavy-duty truck purchase to date.
The trucks will be deployed across high-mileage routes that make up Amazon’s middle-mile network, transporting cargo containers to and from Amazon fulfillment centers, sorting centers and delivery stations facilities in the U.K. and Germany, Daimler Truck said.
Amazon ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America. It also ranks No. 1 on the TT50 list of the largest global freight carriers.
Mercedes-Benz Trucks unveiled the eActros 600 in October 2023. The order was preceded by testing of a prototype based at a German Amazon logistics center.
“The order … underlines our commitment to being a leader in electrifying our transportation network in Europe. It is the biggest electric heavy truck order by Amazon to date anywhere in the world and is an important step as we work to achieve our climate pledge commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions across our operations by 2040,” Amazon Vice President of Worldwide Operations Sustainability Andreas Marschner said.
Daimler Truck sold 4,035 battery-electric vehicles in 2024, a 17% increase from 3,443 in 2023.
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