Daimler Truck Faces Chinese EV Rivals on Three Fronts

FRANKFURT — Daimler Truck is defending its global market dominance as a new wave of highly competitive Chinese electric truck makers prepares to enter Europe. The world’s largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles is also confronting profitability pressures and a structural shift in heavy-duty vehicles driven by stringent European climate mandates.

The company marks 130 years since Gottlieb Daimler built the world’s first motorized truck in 1896 by mounting an engine onto a modified horse-drawn carriage. Under Chief Executive Officer Karin Rådström, Daimler Truck is streamlining corporate operations, accelerating autonomous driving timelines, and expanding its military defense division.

Europe’s three dominant truck manufacturers—Daimler Truck, Sweden’s Volvo Group, and Volkswagen-owned Traton Group—still control the vast majority of the commercial vehicle sector. Chinese truck brands currently hold just a 1.36% share of the European commercial vehicle market, according to market research firm Dataforce.

That position contrasts with the passenger electric vehicle market. Chinese manufacturers captured a record 14.2% of Western European passenger EV sales in the first five months of 2026, up from 3% in 2024, according to Schmidt Automotive Research. Over the same period, foreign brands saw their market share in China decline sharply.

European automotive heavyweights Volkswagen, Stellantis, and Renault recently issued a joint warning to the European Parliament. They cited an unprecedented threat to their domestic and global competitiveness caused by high manufacturing costs and regulatory burdens in Europe.

Chinese manufacturers are establishing industrial footprints on European soil despite the sector’s high entry barriers, established supplier relationships, and complex maintenance networks. Startups and established brands including Windrose Technology, SuperPanther, and Sinotruk have begun assembly operations or established regional headquarters in Belgium and Austria.

Windrose’s flagship Global E700 electric heavy-duty truck has a fully loaded highway range of 700 kilometers, or approximately 435 miles, on a single charge. Daimler Truck’s primary electric long-haul offering, the Mercedes-Benz eActros 600, has a range of 500 kilometers. “They are at the doorstep, they’re coming,” said Thomas Fabian, chief commercial vehicles officer at the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

The European Commission has mandated a 40% reduction in average carbon emissions from new heavy-duty vehicles by 2030, followed by a 90% reduction by 2040. During the first quarter of 2026, zero-emissions vehicles accounted for just 2.4% of all trucks operating in the European Union, largely because of a lack of high-capacity charging infrastructure.

China has already scaled its domestic electric truck market. One in four heavy trucks sold in China in 2025 was electric, and the International Energy Agency estimates that China accounted for roughly 90% of the 400,000 electric trucks sold globally last year. Daniela Costa, head of European capital goods research at Goldman Sachs, said the aggressive domestic deployment rates risk giving Chinese manufacturers a technological and cost advantage as European fleets are forced to transition.

Rådström was appointed CEO in late 2024 after previously leading the company’s Mercedes-Benz truck brand. A Swedish national and former executive vice president at Scania, she is one of only two female CEOs leading a company in Germany’s blue-chip DAX 40 index, alongside Merck KGaA’s Belén Garijo. She is also one of 43 women CEOs in the Fortune 500 Europe.

Since Rådström assumed the top role, Daimler Truck’s share price has risen nearly 40%, from €33.15 to €46.24. The increase was supported by a 67% rise in the company’s global zero-emission vehicle sales in 2025.

The company’s second-quarter financial results showed a 5% increase in revenue, while group net profits fell by 48% compared with the same period the previous year. Supply-chain friction, persistent semiconductor shortages, geopolitical instability, and U.S. tariff pressures drove the decline.

Daimler Truck was spun off from its former parent company Daimler AG, now Mercedes-Benz Group AG, in December 2021. After taking the top role, Rådström sought to dismantle rigid, hierarchical decision-making structures that had historically delayed product development.

“Those things don’t work in the changing environment that we have now,” Rådström said, referring to a corporate culture that relied on extensive slide decks and multi-layered approvals for design and engineering changes. Her “simpler, faster, stronger” mandate is intended to decentralize authority, allowing regional divisions and engineering teams to make decisions without waiting for board-level consensus.

Daimler Truck is also seeking high-margin growth through Daimler Truck Defence, a dedicated brand designed to insulate the group from cyclical downturns in civilian freight transport. The company plans to invest a mid-three-digit-million euro sum to double defense-related revenue to €1 billion ($1.17 billion) by 2028.

The defense strategy uses high-volume civil truck platforms, including the heavy-duty Mercedes-Benz Arocs, the off-road Zetros, and the multi-purpose Unimog, adapting them for tactical, logistical, and military applications. Rising defense budgets and geopolitical tensions across Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have accelerated procurement cycles.

Over the past year, Daimler Truck secured vehicle supply contracts with the armed forces of Germany, France, Lithuania, and Canada. The €1 billion defense target would represent only about 2% of Daimler Truck’s overall annual revenue.

Rådström views military partnerships as an incubator for technological innovation, with advancements potentially transferred to the civilian logistics sector, particularly automated and autonomous operations. In parallel, Daimler Truck is targeting a 2027 commercial launch for Level 4 autonomous trucks in the United States.

Developed primarily through the company’s U.S. subsidiary, Torc Robotics, the autonomous vehicles are designed to operate hub-to-hub on designated highway routes without a driver behind the wheel. Daimler Truck views the technology as essential for preserving its market leadership in North America, where its Freightliner brand remains dominant.

The restructuring comes as the company faces what Rådström describes as its most significant technological disruption since the transition from steam and horses to internal combustion. She maintains that Daimler’s established global service network of spare parts and maintenance centers remains its primary competitive advantage over new entrants.

Shipping companies and logistics carriers operate on thin profit margins, making vehicle uptime and service availability critical purchasing factors. “Cultural change takes time, and while costs are gradually lowered, other temporary cost headwinds are weighing on results,” said Klas Bergelind, managing director and industrial tech analyst at Citi.

“It’s on us to work on our competitiveness, stay on top of innovation, and remain strong on cost,” Rådström said. “We have to show it can reduce costs.”