The world truck market is predicted to grow more than 50 percent by 2015, said Daimler Trucks chief executive Andreas Renschler, speakiing at a press event on the eve of the 2010 Hannover truck show in Germany.
Demand in China will help drive growth in the global truck market. Daimler recently celebrated the handover of a Mercedes-Benz Actros at China Railway Logistics.
Demand in China will help drive growth in the global truck market. Daimler recently celebrated the handover of a Mercedes-Benz Actros at China Railway Logistics.


This will be driven in small part ny the triad nations in North America, the European Community and Japan. But most of the growth will come from the BRIC nations -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- and the newly identified Next 11 emerging economies.

The Next 11 is a term for those economies with the best profiles for success identified by Goldman Sachs in a report that actually goes back to late 2005. the countries are Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam.

Citing Indonesia as an example, Renschler said that the nation has nearly 240 million inhabitants, which is more than Europe's Germany, France, Great Britain and the Benelux countries. Indonesia's demand for trucks is expected to grow by 87 percent this year alone. The important thing about these countries is that the commercial vehicle market is anything but saturated, unlike the long-established triad markets.

With the exception of Russia, the BRIC countries are going strong, said Renschler. China already absorbs every second commercial truck produced over six tons (13,000 pounds).

Another of the three areas that will drive Daimler Truck business in the future is electric vehicles. Forecasts say that by 2050, 70 percent of the world's population will live in cities, he said. That places huge demands on urban transport -- buses and smaller distribution trucks. But countering the anticipated growth in these vehicles is increasing concern about emissions. The answer is in emerging electric vehicles that have low tailpipe emissions, either through hybrid drives or all-electric plug-ins.

Diesel, though, will remain the backbone of road transport "when all of us are retired," said Renschler.

The third area where Daimler Trucks is seeking improved business is through services that will help make its brands the least expensive in total cost of ownership. Today 25 percent of the company's trucking related revenues come from these services -- leasing, fleet management, service management and so on. In the future the company will look to these to provide as much as 50 percent.

In a final reveal of the might of Daimler Trucks, the booth was opened to view the 65 commercial vehicles from most of the Daimler Trucks brands. The massive hall is one of many at the giant bi-annual IAA Hannover show. This one-manufacturer hall likely approximates the size of the South Hall of the Mid-America Trucking Show. And there are many, many more brands than Daimler's on display here in Germany this fall.


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