Daimler Unveils New Heavy-Duty Engine
REDFORD, Mich. — The Daimler Truck Group on Friday unveiled the first fruit of its five-year, $1.5 billion program to develop a single heavy-duty diesel engine to serve its markets around the world.
At a ceremony at Detroit Diesel Corp.’s sprawling, 70-year-old plant here, executives at Daimler and its Freightliner LLC subsidiary gave the press its first look at the DD15, a 14.8-liter engine designed to replace DDC’s 20-year-old Series 60 models.
Andreas Renschler, head of Daimler’s global commercial vehicle operations, called the new engine “the most significant development in the heavy-duty market in the millennium.”
The company spent some $275 million renovating the plant here to make the new lines of engines, which eventually will include four models between 10.8 and 15.6 liters.
Freightliner CEO Chris Patterson said full commercial production of the new “world-class engine” would begin late in the first quarter of 2008.
