The competition in Europe’s truck sector is made up of 8 brands.

Mercedes-Benz:
As the world’s largest established manufacturer of trucks weighing over 6 metric tons, the Daimler Trucks division of Daimler AG develops and builds trucks of the Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Buses and Fuso brands as part of a global group.

The company’s head office is in Stuttgart. The total of 28 production locations are situated in NAFTA, Asia, Europe, South America and Africa.

The product range of Daimler Trucks covers light, medium and heavy-duty trucks for long-distance, distribution and construction operations, as well as special vehicles for use in the municipal sector.
 
Since 1965, the most important production location of Mercedes-Benz Trucks has been the plant at Wörth am Rhein. The main truck models, including the Actros, Atego and Axor, are built in Wörth; specifically this involves cab production and vehicle assembly.

MAN:
MAN SE is a global vehicle and machine-building company. The company’s head office is in Munich.

The MAN Group is divided into two divisions:
One division is Commercial Vehicles, which itself comprises two sub-groups: MAN Truck & Bus and MAN Latin America as well as stakes in the manufacturers MAN Force Trucks (India), MAZ-MAN (Belarus) and Sinotruk (China).

The second division is Power Engineering. This consists of the sub-group MAN Diesel & Turbo and a majority stake in transmission manufacturer Renk AG.

Iveco:
Iveco, part of the Fiat group, is an Italian manufacturer of commercial vehicles based in Turin. The name Iveco came about as an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation.

The core fields of production at Iveco include construction vehicles and fire appliances, as well as medium to heavy-duty trucks for local and long-distance operations and transporters. Iveco also manufactures diesel engines for various sectors. Iveco operates a global network of 49 factories and 15 development departments. The Iveco subsidiary “Iveco Magirus” is a household name in the fire protection sector around the world. According to Iveco’s own data, the company is the biggest manufacturer in the turntable ladder sector.

Scania:
Swedish manufacturer Scania is a listed manufacturer of commercial vehicles and one of the main manufacturers of heavy-duty trucks in Europe and South America. Scania is a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG.

For a number of years, Scania has only offered trucks for heavy-duty distribution and long-distance operations as well as construction and special vehicles (e.g. for fire departments) of the higher weight classes in the truck sector.
The product range currently starts at 18 metric tons total weight and 230 hp rated output. The heaviest solo vehicles for road use have a total weight of 40 metric tons and are used in Switzerland. The engine range peaks at a rated output of 730 hp.

Volvo:
Volvo is a Swedish commercial vehicle company. Volvo was originally founded in 1927 as a manufacturer of automobiles. Today, the Volvo Group produces buses, various chassis and trucks for the Volvo, Renault, Mack and Nissan brands. The company’s head office is located in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The product program for commercial vehicles ranges from light-duty trucks for urban distribution through to heavy-duty trucks for long-distance goods transport and special vehicles.
 
The majority of sales is concentrated in Western Europe, North and South America and Asia.

Renault:
The French truck manufacturer Renault Trucks, with its head office in Saint-Priest near Lyon, has been part of the Volvo Group since 2001.

Renault Trucks offers all types of commercial vehicles: from medium-duty trucks for urban distribution operations to special vehicles and heavy-duty trucks for long-distance goods transport.


DAF:
The Dutch truck producer DAF (Van Doorne’s Automobiel Fabriek N.V.) is a brand of the American Paccar Group.

DAF offered front-wheel steering cabs from the outset; these initially had a rounded design, which was squared off in the 1960s. Nothing has changed in this area to this day. This early offering of front-wheel steering cabs was one of DAF’s truck production strengths. DAF offered short-nose trucks from 1950 to 1972.

In 1996, the remaining DAF truck division was acquired by the Paccar Group in the USA. However, the DAF brand is still represented on the market.

Like other commercial vehicle manufacturers, DAF has divided its models into series, which are assigned to the light, medium and heavy-duty classes.

Fuso:
The Fuso Canter is a light and medium-duty commercial vehicle from Fuso. Initially, the model was only available in Japan and a number of other Asian countries. From the late 1980s, this model was also sold in the USA.

Production of the first Fuso Canter vehicles to be exported from Asia began in 1962. The Fuso Canter was still exported to other regions, such as Europe, North America and the Middle East. Most models of the city truck can be identified by the Fuso Canter logo at the front. The Mitsubishi logo is usually applied at the rear. In 2003, the commercial vehicle division of Daimler was able to acquire an 85% stake in Fuso following a spin-off of the division from the Mitsubishi Group. The same proportion of the Fuso Canter model series thus also belongs to Daimler Trucks.

The Fuso assembly plant in Tramagal, Portugal, is the exclusive supplier of Fuso Canter vehicles to the European market. The vehicles are available as single or double-cabin models.

Mercedes-Benz Trucks (Daimler Trucks) belongs to the truck division of Daimler AG. This division covers the Mercedes-Benz, Fuso, Freightliner, Western Star and Thomas Built Buses brands.

Daimler advanced to become one of the biggest truck manufacturers in the world. Since 1965, the most important production location of Mercedes-Benz Trucks has been the plant at Wörth am Rhein. The main truck models, including the Actros, Atego and Axor, are built in Wörth; specifically this involves cab production and vehicle assembly.

In 1896, designers and company-founders Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler presented the first Mercedes-Benz truck as a Daimler truck from Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG – Daimler Engine Company), as it was called at the time. Daimler-Benz produced various platform trucks and trucks up until the outbreak of the Second World War. Models such as the Mercedes-Benz Lo 2000 and the L 1500 with wood gasification plant, both of which date to the 1930s, can still be marveled at today in museums.

In 2004, Mercedes-Benz was the first manufacturer to present Mercedes-Benz engines that complied with the Euro 4 and Euro 5 emissions standards. Mercedes-Benz Trucks used SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) technology to achieve this. This technology was later also used by most other truck manufacturers. The SCR catalytic converter works by converting the toxic nitrogen oxide into nitrogen and water vapor in a chemical reaction through the addition of AdBlue. This means that the emissions are no longer reduced only within the engine, as was normal for engines up to that point.

A lot of value was placed on safety in the Actros. It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that the launch of the Actros saw the introduction of new safety systems. The Actros was given ABS, ASR and a driver airbag – these systems are available in most long-distance trucks nowadays. Other systems, such as distance control, stability control, lane assist and emergency brake assist, were also installed as options.

The present Mercedes-Benz truck models are the new Actros, Axor, Atego, Econic and Zetros.

The Mercedes-Benz Actros has been around since 1996. It is a completely redesigned heavy-duty class of the Mercedes-Benz truck. The heavy-duty vehicles were given their own name for the first time. In 2004, exactly 8 years after the launch, came the Actros MP2 – the first facelift of the Mercedes-Benz Actros. The second facelift was performed 4 years later in 2008, and was called the Actros MP3. Another 3 years later, in 2011, a completely redeveloped Actros was presented.

The successor to the LK models was presented in 1998. It’s name – Mercedes-Benz Atego. It was the first time that the medium-duty truck was given its own name. Three years later, in 2001, the Mercedes-Benz Axor appeared. The Axor model series closes the gap between Atego and Actros, with the Axor replacing the heavy-duty Atego models. A facelift followed in 2004, three years after the introduction of the Axor.