Mercedes 2015 Annual Report Download - page 160

C | THE DIVISIONS | DAIMLER TRUCKS 167
in Pretoria (South Africa) for Southern Africa. The regional cen-
ter for Southeast Asia will follow in Singapore in March. These
new regional centers will put us in even closer proximity to our
markets and customers, allowing us to respond more quickly
to their needs. We have also achieved another milestone in the
implementation of our platform strategy. In November, our
facility in Detroit began producing the automated Detroit Trans-
mission 12 (DT12) for the North American market.
In Western Europe, we increased our sales by 13% to 64,800
units. Unit sales became more dynamic as the year progressed.
Our Mercedes-Benz brand maintained its market lead in the
medium-duty and heavy-duty segments with a share of 22.5%
(2014: 24.4%). As a result of advance purchases before the
tougher EURO VI emissions standard comes into effect in 2016,
sales amounted to 24,900 units in Turkey, thus surpassing
the previous year’s high level (2014: 22,200 units) despite the
country’s weakening economic development and the uncertain
political situation in the region. The market nevertheless lost
significant momentum in the second half of the year. Demand
decreased substantially in Russia due to the country’s ongoing
difficult economic situation.
Daimler Trucks saw sales drop sharply in Latin America, due
primarily to the severe market contraction in Brazil. The Brazilian
market was also weakened by the continued worsening of
the financing possibilities offered by the government’s FINAME
program. The weakness of Brazil, our main market in the region,
caused sales to fall to 16,400 units (2014: 32,200). In this chal-
lenging environment, we were able to slightly increase our
market share of Brazil’s medium-duty and heavy-duty segments
to 26.7% (2014: 25.8%). In order to permanently strengthen
Daimler Trucks’ competitiveness in Brazil, between 2014 and
2018, we will invest approximately €500 million in products,
technology and services that are tailored to the needs of the
Brazilian market. To this end, we further optimized the comfort,
fuel economy and total cost of ownership of the locally produced
truck models Accelo, Atego, Axor and Actros.
In the NAFTA region, Daimler Trucks saw sales rise by 19% to
the record level of 191,900 units. We further extended our
market leadership in the Classes 6-8 last year, increasing our
market share to 39.4% (2014: 37.2%). The sales growth was
due to our outstanding products as well as the good market
development last year. In May 2015, we started production
of the new Western Star 5700 XE in Cleveland, North Carolina.
This semitrailer tractor features sophisticated aerodynamics
and is equipped with the new, highly efficient Detroit powertrain.
It consumes nearly 15% less fuel than a comparable vehicle.
Freightliner Inspiration Truck: the first autonomously driving truck with US road approval.