Daimler Trucks 2007: Sales of Mercedes-Benz Trucks with All-Time High

Wörth am Rhein, Germany, January 23, 2008

As expected, the development of the world truck market was heterogeneous in 2007: Whereas the market for medium- and heavy-duty trucks remained stable in Europe, truck markets in NAFTA and Japan declined last year. In Brazil, on the other hand, markets developed positively in both segments.

Trucks Europe/Latin America (Mercedes-Benz trucks) achieved a new all-time high of 159,900 (+12.5%) vehicles sold last year, mainly due to the high demand for the Mercedes-Benz Actros. Significant increases were achieved for the fifth year in a row in Europe (+6.8% to 104,400 vehicles). Sales also developed very well in Latin America (+27.4% to 38,100 vehicles), the Middle East (+44.3% to 6,000 vehicles), and Eastern Europe (+19.6% to 25,900 vehicles). As a result, Mercedes-Benz trucks was able to retain its market leadership in the key markets Germany, Western Europe and Brazil, and to substantially expand their leading position in Turkey.

Incoming orders for Mercedes-Benz trucks also broke all previous records in 2007.

In fact, for the first time ever, more than 200,000 trucks were ordered in a single year. This corresponds to an increase of over 34%. Around half of the orders received were for the flagship model Actros.

Due to the sales records of Mercedes-Benz trucks, all three Mercedes-Benz trucks production sites in Wörth (Germany), Aksaray (Turkey), and São Bernado do Campo (Brazil) produced with full capacity and reached new records in production.

Trucks Asia (Mitsubishi Fuso) increased its sales last year by 1.1% to the record figure of 188,700 vehicles. Declining sales in Japan and Taiwan as a result of stricter emissions regulations and a market-related drop in demand were more than offset by a 16.6% increase in the export markets. Fuso is the leading supplier of light-duty trucks on a number of markets, including Taiwan and Indonesia.

As expected, Trucks NAFTA (Freightliner, Sterling, Western Star and Thomas Built Buses) did not reach prior year’s very high sales level. A cyclical market decline in the U.S. and pre-buys ahead of the introduction of stricter emissions regulations resulted in a 36.5% drop in sales to 119,000 vehicles. However, Trucks NAFTA succeeded in developing market potential outside the NAFTA region. Here, Trucks NAFTA increased its sales by 70.4%. Despite the overall sales decrease, the Freightliner brand defended its market leadership for Class 8 trucks in the U.S. and the NAFTA region.

Daimler Trucks sold a total of 467,700 (-9.4%) heavy-, medium- and light-duty vehicles in 2007. The sales drop was expected and resulted primarily from decreased market volumes in the key sales markets U.S., Canada and Japan, where stricter emissions regulations led to large numbers of pre-buys in 2006.

Success for the Global Excellence program

Regarding the implementation of the Global Excellence Program in 2007, Daimler Trucks mainly focused on the "Management of Market Cycles" and "Operational Excellence" initiatives. Measures in the context of the management of cycles prepared Daimler Trucks for the market downturn in the NAFTA region through flexible shift models, personnel adjustments, fixed-cost cuts, and further expansion in export markets. In addition, the share of captive engines and axles in Trucks NAFTA products has been significantly increased over the last five years, thus contributing to Operational Excellence.

In 2008 and beyond, the focus of the Global Excellence Program will shift more to the "Growth and Market Exploitation" and "Future Product Generations" initiatives.

The objective of the "Growth and Market Exploitation" initiative is to further consolidate Daimler Trucks' strong position as the global market leader for trucks. Andreas Renschler, member of the Board of management of Daimler AG, responsible for Daimler Trucks: “There is a number of interesting markets we address systematically, because there is significant growth and revenue potential for our business.”

Among other things, this will include expanding into new markets such as India. Renschler: “India is a truck market with growth rates above the average in the next years. Therefore, we signed a joint venture contract with the Hero Group in India in December 2007. Daimler Trucks will keep a majority of 60% in this joint venture.” The projected joint venture is first aimed at local production of light-, medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles for the Indian volume market. Production for export markets is expected to follow at a later stage. The vehicles produced will be variants of Daimler Trucks’ current product portfolio tailored to the Indian market.

Russia is also a key market for Daimler Trucks, as both new and used trucks offered by the division have met with a high level of acceptance there. Especially the business with used trucks confirms the market expectations for the brands Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner and Mitsubishi Fuso. Renschler: “We have a market share of 25% with all three brands in the used truck market.”

The implementation of the initiative “Future Product Generations” will be contributed by the new Actros, which will be presented at the end of this month, and the "Shaping Future Transportation" initiative. The further development of alternative drive systems and sustainable fuels has been given a high priority here, as well as the technological leadership of Mercedes-Benz trucks.

The new Actros will benefit from its several safety related innovations. Hubertus Troska, responsible for Trucks Europe/Latin America (Mercedes-Benz): „With the new Actros we improved the current market leader further by making it more efficient for the fleet owner and more comfortable and design-oriented for the driver.“

Outlook

Renschler expects Daimler Trucks to increase its sales in 2008: "Our extremely important market in the NAFTA region and the Japanese market will recover as the year progresses. The market volume there will once again increase significantly. Market conditions in Europe are expected to remain stable. These are good perspectives for Daimler Trucks."