Daimler Trucks announces two new medium-duty engines

Daimler Trucks’ Wolfgang Bernhard says DD5 and DD8 production will move to Detroit in the near future.Daimler Trucks’ Wolfgang Bernhard says DD5 and DD8 production will move to Detroit in the near future.

Daimler Trucks recently introduced its new DD5 and DD8 medium-duty engines, which will be manufactured at the Detroit brand headquarters and manufacturing facility in Redford, Mich.

The new DD5 and DD8 engines now give Daimler a fully integrated medium-duty powertrain. Martin Daum, president of Daimler Trucks North America, noted that the company would continue to offer Cummins engines in its medium-duty vehicles. “We will let the customer decide which engine they prefer,” he said.

The DD5 will appear early next year and is currently running in Europe as a Mercedes-branded engine. Daum said the engines are not the same, though.

“We focus on many factors for specific markets,” he explained, “including fuel mapping, shifting patterns and highway speeds. So these engines will reflect that input and be true North American engines.”

The DD8 is slated to enter the market late in 2017.

Daum was mum on specific horsepower, torque and fuel economy figures for the DD5, although Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, with Daimler’s Board of Directors, noted that initial U.S. fuel economy tests were “very encouraging.” Daum added that in his view, the new DD5’s four-cylinder design was robust enough to replace competitive 6 cylinder engines.

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