The commercial vehicle division of Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) including Freightliner/Mitusbishi FUSO/Western Star ended 2008 on a high note with total sales of 9 167 units in the over 3.5 t GVM segments, giving a market share of 26.4%, an improvement of 3.2% over 2007.

“On the back of another superb year, we are confident that we will go in to 2009 with all our building blocks in place. Even though our closest competitor has a 15.1% market share, we will not rest on our laurels as the competition and market conditions are challenging out there,” says Kobus van Zyl, Vice President, Commercial Vehicles, MBSA.

“We know that 2009 will be tough but we are confident that all the effort, time and investment we have put in to our current infrastructure will pull us through the expected challenges,” adds Van Zyl.

Mercedes-Benz South Africa has in its stable the complete Mercedes-Benz product range from the Vito and Sprinter van range, to the Atego, Axor and Actros trucks, and the Bus and Coach offering.

An advantage to the group is the benefit of the Mitsubishi FUSO range, including the popular Canter, to the medium and heavy truck segments, all of which play an important role in maintaining market share for the group. Total year-end volumes for Mitsubishi FUSO reached 1 612 units, an improvement of 3%, over 2007s units of 1 571 units.

“Our Mitsubishi FUSO dealer network is well geared towards the challenges of 2009 and the Mitsubishi FUSO range is an ideal product to face these opportunities,” says Van Zyl.

Furthermore, the American range which includes the Freightliner Argosy and Columbia have increased their sales volumes to 1 719 units, an increased growth of 46% over 2007 volumes of 1 181 units. Freightliner continues to hold the number one spot in the long-haul 6x4 tractor market.

“We are delighted that our Freightliner customers are finding the product to be extremely reliable and fuel efficient, making the Argosy the highway truck of choice,” elaborates Van Zyl.

Western Star custom built trucks continue to sell strongly with their biggest volume of sales coming from a mixture of off-highway mining trucks and on-highway recovery/breakdown trucks.

“There is a lot of activity in the bus arena and our bus division has submitted a number of tenders. We are bullish about the future of buses and our recent investment in our dedicated bus line at our plant in East London offers engineering excellence and local investment, together with job opportunities in these difficult times. This year we will have dedicated focus on the bus retail market,” says Van Zyl.

“The exciting news for 2009 will be the introduction of the new Actros 3 range, a truck that recently won the European Truck of the Year 2009. All engines will conform to Euro 3 requirements, however, Daimler’s European trucks already conform to Euro 5 with the addition of BlueTEC,” adds Van Zyl.

“The Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle division continue their market dominance with total year-end sales of 5 636 units (excluding Vito), giving an overall market share of 16,8% in the over 3,5 t GVM category.

The Sprinter continues its success story with a specialised taxi package, aptly named the Inkanyezi (a star), which is directly focused to the taxi industry. MBSA has a focused Van team, who has a good working relationship with the taxi industry who are excited about the company’s new product offering, which complies with all the necessary industry requirements.

“We will continue to improve our value added products offering, such as Fleetboard and CharterWay, recently introduced at the Johannesburg International Motor Show. Our pilot projects are working well and the teams are in constant dialogue, receiving regular feedback from operators and customers. As mentioned, 2009 holds a number of challenges, but with hard work from our entire team, including our dealer network, debis Fleet Management, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, and close relations with our mother company, Daimler AG, we are confident that we will continue to add value to our loyal customers,” concludes Van Zyl.