Daimler launches growth offensive at Fuso

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC), one of Asia’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturers, has emerged in stronger shape after the crisis brought about by the earthquake and the tsunami in Japan. MFTBC President Albert Kirchmann announced this good news during the European Press Test Drive for the new light-duty Fuso Canter truck in Ludwigsburg.

“The realignment of Fuso in 2009 and 2010 created a solid foundation that is now allowing us to benefit in the current situation,” said Kirchmann. “Measures such as the realigning of our manufacturing operations and the optimization of material costs have resulted in a €760 million (100 billion yen) improvement. This put us in a situation in which we were able to react with extraordinary flexibility during the production ramp-up after the earthquake disaster and to quickly achieve the same unit volumes that we had before the crisis.”

The upward trend in sales in the aftermath of the events of last spring is also clearly evident. Sales already increased by 71 percent to 39.793 units in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. Due to the disaster sales decreased by 30 percent (about 10.000 units) to 23.299 units in the second quarter of the year compared to the first quarter. In total a number of 96,247 vehicles were sold between January and September 2011 (January-September 2010: 100.747 units).

Albert Kirchmann commented on the sales developments as follows: “The Japanese market is stabilizing after the earthquake disaster. The current development at Fuso is positive. All the signs indicate that we will surpass our sales figures for 2010 by the end of this year. Our mid-term goal is to double the annual international Fuso sales to more than 200.000 units (2010: 115.894).”

I’m very proud and pleased that Fuso is an integral and reliable component of Daimler Trucks and back on track
“I’m very proud and pleased that Fuso is an integral and reliable component of Daimler Trucks and back on track,” said Andreas Renschler, the Daimler Board of Management member responsible for Daimler Trucks and Daimler Buses. “Fuso will most definitely play a major role in our efforts to sell more than 500,000 trucks worldwide in 2013.”

Achieving this strategic role will require an expansion of fleet activities, an entry into new markets and segments outside of Japan. The first steps have already been taken. Medium-duty Fuso trucks were launched on the South African market at the beginning of October, for example, and heavy-duty Fuso trucks will be introduced in Indonesia for the first time next year.

Making Fuso a profitable global player is a component of the future-oriented “Fuso 2015” initiative, which is based on five strategic pillars:

- Leader in Green Innovation
- Customer #1 in Japan
- Becoming a Profitable Global Player
- Efficiency Leader within the Japanese
- Commercial Vehicle Manufacturers
- Becoming Employer #1 in the Company’s Industry

“Fuso 2015 is a growth offensive,” Kirchmann explained. “We plan to achieve the goals of our strategic program by improving product quality even further and providing even better customer service. We will also focus our product portfolio more strongly on growth markets. The further development of our environmentally friendly drive system technologies for Daimler Trucks will play a key role here. By 2015 Fuso plans to be the leader in alternative drive systems and related forward-looking innovations for the global commercial vehicle market.”

Fuso plans to forge ahead with the development of its hybrid activities, because it is clear that in the future more stringent emission limits will also become a feature of markets outside the triad. Fuso is already one of the world’s leading manufacturers of commercial vehicles with alternative drive systems. Back in 2006, it introduced the Fuso Canter Eco Hybrid — one of the cleanest light-duty trucks in the world. The Daimler Trucks Global Hybrid Center (GHC) has been located at the Fuso facility in Kawasaki since 2008. The GHC coordinates and synchronizes the worldwide hybrid activities of all truck brands in the Daimler Group.

The latest development from the GHC is the heavy-duty Fuso Super Great long-distance haulage truck, which is equipped with a hybrid drive system. In addition, the Fuso Super Great HEV test truck will make Daimler Trucks one of the world’s first commercial vehicle manufacturers to demonstrate substantially higher fuel efficiency as compared to conventional diesel-powered trucks.