Daimler Trucks invests $120 million and creates 115 new jobs for production expansion at Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC) in the Redford, Michigan location
US President Barack Obama visited a North American commercial vehicle subsidiary of Daimler AG for the second time this year. After his visit to the Freightliner trucks production plant in Mount Holly, North Carolina, in March of 2012, on Tuesday the 11th the US President is meeting the employees of the aggregate plant in Redford, Michigan. During his visit at the location, Obama commended Daimler’s plans to expand the production at the Redford location. For this, the company will invest $120 million and create 115 new jobs.
As he visited the Daimler AG plant, President Barack Obama was shown two new pieces of technology developed by the Detroit Diesel Corp. subsidiary that will help truckers save fuel.
The President was given a look at the German truck maker’s automated manual transmission and the new Detroit DD15 engine featuring a proprietary turbocharger with a next-generation amplified common rail system, which not only improves performance and fuel economy, but reduces overall weight and complexity, Daimler officials said.
In future, Daimler production in Michigan will include the Detroit DT12 automated manual transmission and the new asymmetric turbocharger Detroit DD15. Thus, Daimler Trucks will become the first commercial vehicle manufacturer in the NAFTA region to offer a fully integrated powertrain from its own production.
Additional details were expected to be announced later today. Detroit Diesel is a leading manufacturer or engines for heavy-duty trucks and traces its history back to 1938. It has recently added new lines of axles and automated manual transmission to its product line.
By making all the parts — engine, axles and transmission — in one place, Daimler says its engineers can design each part to work more effectively with the others, resulting in greater fuel efficiency and lower total cost for ownership for customers.
Andreas Renschler, Management Board Member of Daimler AG responsible for Daimler Trucks announced, “Under the umbrella of our components brand Detroit we combine engines, axles and transmissions into an efficient, fully integrated power-train.”
Martin Daum, President and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America:
“A fully integrated powertrain from a single source is a decisive competitive advantage. That is why we decided in favor of the Redford location, where our employees work hand in hand in one location,” underlined Daum. “With this we are placing great confidence in the workforce here.”