1926
Launch
Benz & Cie. and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft merge in 1926 to form Daimler-Benz AG (Daimler Truck release, November 4, 2021).
1940
Launch
Consolidated Freightways president Leland James helps establish Freightways Manufacturing Company in Salt Lake City in 1940 to build his cab-over-engine trucks; it is renamed Freightliner Corporation in 1942 (Daimler Truck North America history page, northamerica.daimlertruck.com/company/history).
1981
Milestone
Daimler-Benz AG buys Freightliner from Consolidated Freightways in 1981 (Daimler Truck history page, daimlertruck.com/en/company/history).
Jun 2018
Launch
Daimler Trucks presents the fully electric Freightliner eCascadia and the medium-duty Freightliner eM2 106 in Portland, Oregon on June 7, 2018: the eCascadia has 550 kWh of batteries and a range of up to 250 miles, and about 30 trucks of the two models are to go to first customers in North America before the end of 2018 (Daimler Trucks release, June 7, 2018).
Dec 2018
Commercial
Daimler Trucks North America hands over the first medium-duty Freightliner eM2 to Penske Truck Leasing in Los Angeles on December 20, 2018, the first of 30 trucks in its innovation fleet, and the first heavy-duty eCascadias go to Penske and NFI Industries in August 2019 (Daimler Truck release, December 21, 2018; Daimler Truck release, August 22, 2019).
Oct 2021
Expansion
Daimler Truck says on October 7, 2021 that the first series-production eActros has rolled off the line at the Future Truck Center of the Mercedes-Benz plant in Wörth, Germany, with customers able to order it since October 1; the series model has three or four battery packs of about 105 kWh each, up to 420 kWh in total, and a range of up to 400 km (Daimler Truck release, October 7, 2021; Daimler Truck release, June 30, 2021).
Dec 2021
Milestone
Daimler Truck Holding AG begins trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol DTG on December 10, 2021 following its spin-off from Daimler AG, which shareholders approved on October 1, 2021 with 99.90% of the capital stock represented (Daimler Truck release, December 10, 2021; Daimler Truck release, October 1, 2021).
May 2022
Expansion
Daimler Truck says on May 18, 2022 that the Freightliner eCascadia will enter series production in 2022, with customer deliveries expected to begin in 2022: a typical range of 230 miles, three battery options of 194, 291 and 438 kWh, and a 470 hp dual motor or 320 hp single motor (Daimler Truck release, May 18, 2022).
Sep 2023
Milestone
A public-road prototype Mercedes-Benz GenH2 Truck completes Daimler Truck's #HydrogenRecordRun on September 25 and 26, 2023, covering 1,047 km from Woerth am Rhein to Berlin on one fill of liquid hydrogen, fully loaded at a gross combined weight of 40 tons, with the distance confirmed by an inspection document from TÜV Rheinland (Daimler Truck release, September 26, 2023).
Oct 2023
Product
Mercedes-Benz Trucks holds the world premiere of the battery-electric eActros 600 on October 10, 2023: three LFP battery packs of 207 kWh each (621 kWh installed), a range of 500 km without intermediate charging, CCS charging up to 400 kW and megawatt charging to follow through a pre-installation that customers can order, with sales starting in 2023 and series production planned for the end of 2024 (Daimler Truck release, October 10, 2023).
May 2024
Milestone
Daimler Truck says the Freightliner eCascadia, in production since 2022, has reached 6 million real-world miles in more than 55 fleets in the United States; ICCT's registration data put Daimler at 42% of US zero-emission heavy-duty truck registrations in 2023 and 22.8% in 2024 (Daimler Truck release, May 8, 2024; ICCT, Zero-emission bus and truck market in the United States: A 2022-2023 update, June 2024; ICCT, Race to zero: Zero-emission bus and truck market in the United States, 2024, June 24, 2025).
May 2024
Regulatory
Regulation (EU) 2024/1610 of 14 May 2024 amends Regulation (EU) 2019/1242 to require reductions in CO2 emissions per km from new heavy-duty vehicles of 45% by 2030, 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2040 against reference-period fleet averages (2019 for vehicles under the earlier standards); it extends the standards to medium lorries, city buses, coaches and trailers and requires 90% of new city buses to be zero-emission by 2030 and all of them from 2035 (European Commission, Climate Action, Lorries, buses and coaches).
Nov 2024
Commercial
Series production of the Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 starts at the Wörth plant in Germany at the end of November 2024 and the first customer deliveries follow, with around 50 trucks to be handed over to customers in Germany by the end of the year, the first nine customers including Gschwander, Contargo and Denkinger; most trucks built in the first months go to branches and dealers as demonstration vehicles (Daimler Truck release, December 9, 2024).
Mar 2025
Paused
Daimler Truck presents its Cost Down Europe efficiency program at its March 14, 2025 Annual Results Conference, a program of more than EUR 1 billion in cost savings in Europe by 2030; its July 2025 Capital Market Day release says the Mercedes-Benz Trucks plan includes a shift of production volume to a best-cost country and a significant job reduction in Germany by 2030, through natural attrition, expanded early retirement and targeted severance, following a Works Council agreement that excludes dismissals for operational reasons until the end of 2034 (Daimler Truck FY 2024 Annual Results Conference presentation, March 14, 2025; Daimler Truck General Works Council press release, June 6, 2025; Daimler Truck Capital Market Day release, July 8, 2025).
Jul 2025
Milestone
Daimler Truck's Q2 2025 report shows zero-emission vehicle unit sales of 1,232 in the quarter (648 a year earlier) and 1,991 in the first half (1,461), and, in the second quarter, a special item of EUR 218 million in research and development costs from a non-cash derecognition of capitalized development costs because of the delayed transformation speed of battery-electric vehicles, especially in the US market (Daimler Truck Q2 2025 interim report, July 31, 2025).
Mar 2026
Milestone
Daimler Truck reports 2025 unit sales of battery-electric trucks and buses of 6,726, up 67% from 4,035 in 2024, and says Mercedes-Benz Trucks held a 35 percent share of the EU30 medium- and heavy-duty battery-electric truck segment in 2025 (Daimler Truck full-year 2025 results release, March 12, 2026).
Sep 2026
Launch
Mercedes-Benz Trucks makes the electric eActros Lowliner public debut at IAA Transportation; orders open from Q3 2026, series production at Wörth starts in Q2 2027 and an MCS charging option follows in H2 2027 (Daimler Truck press release, September 13, 2026).
Daimler Truck