As economic shifts and rapid technological change reshape the commercial vehicle landscape, Daimler Truck is responding with purpose and direction. Despite near-term market volatility, the company sees a clear road ahead, one marked by surging global transport demand. Anchoring this vision are ambitious targets: a 12%+ return on industrial sales and 3–5% annual growth by 2030. But the ambition isn’t confined to numbers; its strategy is an intricate weave of innovation, efficiency, customer focus, and cultural evolution—each thread reinforcing the next, Karin Radstrom – President & CEO, Daimler Truck Holding AG, has said.
Delivering her speech at the Capital Market Day 2025, held in Charlotte, North Carolina, Radstrom said, with top-three positions across key markets in trucks and buses—from the Americas to Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa—the company is strategically poised to capitalise on this momentum.
But its strength isn't limited to geographic reach. The vehicle maker’s portfolio includes a suite of powerful, purpose-driven brands—Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, Western Star, Fuso, Rizon, BharatBenz, and Thomas Built Buses—each tailored to serve specific customer needs. This diversity has helped the company become a globally integrated powerhouse, she mentioned.
Scale, Stability, Skilled Workforce
In 2024, Daimler Truck sold 460,000 units globally, reinforcing its leadership through scale—a crucial advantage as the industry evolves across multiple technology paths. Its financial resilience is equally impressive, with a net industrial liquidity of over €8 billion. This enables strategic flexibility and future investments.
Underlying this global strength is a workforce of over 100,000 employees spanning 130 nationalities. Their deep domain expertise and local understanding have been vital to Daimler Truck’s sustained success.
Product and Infrastructure Milestones
Recent launches underscore Daimler Truck’s focus on innovation and future-readiness. The Mercedes-Benz Actros L with the new Pro Cabin delivers up to 3% improvement in fuel efficiency through aerodynamic enhancements. The Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 marks a significant milestone as the company’s first true long-haul battery electric truck, earning strong customer feedback and securing a 202-unit order from Amazon. In North America, the fifth-generation Freightliner Cascadia, already the most driven Class 8 truck, raises the bar further in efficiency and safety. Complementing its product advances, Daimler Truck has also inaugurated a new Global Parts Centre in Germany, enabling faster and more efficient spare parts distribution to over 170 countries and strengthening its global aftersales service capability, she noted.
A Performance-Driven Business
Since 2019, Daimler Truck has steadily expanded its service business, achieving an impressive 24% growth—a reflection of its sharpened customer focus and operational discipline. The company has also executed key turnaround stories that demonstrate its resilience and strategic clarity. Daimler Buses, for instance, delivered a remarkable performance with EBIT surging by over 50%, while the Latin American operations showed substantial improvement, underscoring Daimler Truck’s ability to adapt across diverse markets. In 2024 alone, the company generated €3.2 billion in free cash flow, and over the past two years, it returned €5 billion to shareholders. Despite navigating mixed market conditions, the OEM consistently met its return on sales targets, a result of its disciplined execution and well-calibrated strategy, Radstrom pointed out.
Strategic Roadmap: Five Pillars for the Future
Daimler Truck’s strategic roadmap for the future is built on five interlinked pillars, each carefully designed to unlock new opportunities and build long-term resilience.
Elaborating on the strategy, she said the first pillar—Unlocking Potential through Growth, Scale and Efficiency—demonstrates how Daimler Truck is consolidating and expanding its global footprint. A key element of this approach is the integration of Mitsubishi Fuso with Hino, forming a powerful Japanese commercial vehicle alliance. Daimler Truck retains a 25% stake in the new entity and expects both technological synergies and cash inflows of €1.5–2 billion. Meanwhile, the company has set its sights firmly on the zero-emission future, targeting more than 25,000 battery electric truck deliveries annually in Europe by 2030. In India, it continues to grow its domestic presence under the BharatBenz brand, while also ramping up exports. In North America, vocational trucks represent another high-potential growth area, with a goal of increasing volumes by 60% by the end of the decade. Daimler Truck is also rediscovering the strength of its defence segment, aiming to double revenues in this high-margin, contract-rich business.
The second pillar centres around becoming a Customer-Centric Solutions Powerhouse. With over €8 billion in service revenue in 2024, the vehicle maker is doubling down on this momentum. A planned €250 million investment will expand its truck-focused retail network in Europe, deepening its aftersales and support infrastructure to serve customers more efficiently and proactively.
The third pillar, Transforming at the Speed of ‘Right,’ reflects the company’s calibrated approach to technology transition. It is deliberately avoiding the trap of overcommitting to any single drivetrain technology. Instead, it’s making targeted, smart investments across the board—from battery electric to diesel and hydrogen fuel cell. Strategic partnerships play a key role here, with Volvo in the Cellcentric fuel cell joint venture, and with Cummins for advanced diesel engine development. Daimler Truck continues to lead globally in heavy-duty diesel engine production, ensuring it has the capability to serve today’s markets while preparing for tomorrow’s, she noted.
Underpinning this transformation is the fourth pillar: a Lean and Effective Operating Model. The ‘Cost Down Europe’ programme is the most ambitious restructuring effort in Daimler Truck’s history, expected to deliver more than €1 billion in savings by 2030. Critical steps include aligning bonuses in Germany to regional business performance and introducing greater labour flexibility through increased temporary workforce quotas, all aimed at improving operational agility.
Finally, the fifth pillar—Fostering a High-Performance Culture—recognises that strategy alone isn't enough. At the heart of execution is a cultural shift that places performance, accountability, and customer obsession at the core. With foundational principles of 'Simpler Faster Stronger' and new systems like pay-for-performance and career level reviews, the OEM is not just building systems—it’s building a mindset fit for a dynamic, rapidly evolving industry.
Together, these five pillars form a cohesive vision for the future, positioning the German company not just to keep pace with change—but to lead it, she mentioned.
Autonomous Trucking: A Billion-Euro Opportunity
When it comes to autonomous trucking, Daimler Truck is steering towards leadership in long-haul freight, with a clear focus on North America. The company is advancing a robust, end-to-end solution that integrates both hardware and software under one strategic umbrella.
At the core of this effort is Daimler Truck North America (DTNA), which is developing a redundant, factory-ready vehicle platform specifically designed for autonomous driving. This platform includes fail-safe systems for braking, steering, and other critical functions—ensuring that the truck remains operational even if a primary system fails.
Complementing this hardware foundation is TORC, Daimler Truck’s dedicated software arm, which is building the ‘virtual driver’—a sophisticated AI-based autonomy stack that will eventually replace the human driver in select use cases. The combined capabilities of DTNA and TORC are being brought together in a seamless, fully integrated autonomous trucking solution, complete with support from the existing dealership and service network.
This strategic approach is designed not only to reduce customer total cost of ownership by 15–20%, but also to open up a high-potential new business stream, she explained. The company is targeting a €3 billion revenue opportunity from autonomous solutions by 2030—an ambitious goal, but one that reflects its confidence in shaping the future of freight mobility.
From zero-emission solutions to digitisation and defence, its multi-pronged strategy is anchored in operational excellence, customer obsession, and global scale.
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