A fifth-generation Freightliner Cascadia on the road. Daimler Truck North America sold 38,992 trucks and buses in the first quarter of 2025. (Daimler Truck)

Daimler Truck North America sold 38,992 trucks and buses in the first quarter of 2025, a decrease of 16% compared with 46,229 vehicles in the same period in 2024, parent company Daimler Truck said April 8.

DTNA is the umbrella division for Class 8 truck makers Freightliner and Western Star plus Thomas Built Buses and Freightliner Custom Chassis.

Daimler Truck said the decrease in North American sales was expected. The parent company did not break out the individual brands’ sales.

U.S. retail sales of Class 8 trucks decreased year on year in December, January and February, according to Wards Intelligence data. March data is yet to be released.

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Ongoing freight market weakness — which carrier executives have characterized as the worst in 40 years — was expected to hurt sales in the first three months of 2025.

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However, anecdotal evidence suggests uncertainty over the wider economy — including as a result of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration — is tamping down appetite for risk and capital spending even more severely than previously forecast.

As many as 350 staff are being laid off in April at Volvo Trucks North America’s New River Valley assembly plant in Dublin, Va., largely due to soft demand, the company told Transport Topics.

ACT Research in March cut its 2025 Class 8 demand forecast by about 8% to 288,800 from 316,500 trucks and tractors in February as a result of the growing apprehension about the U.S. economy.

Freightliner won a 36% share of Class 8 retail sales in 2024, Wards data show, while Western Star took a 4.8% slice of the pie after a 39.5% jump in sales.

Western Star benefited from continued demand strength in the vocational truck, which was expected to continue into 2025. However, expectations softened across Q1 as the Trump administration rolled back Biden-era infrastructure initiatives and imposed tariffs on imports from around the world.

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Global economic uncertainty became more pronounced in the first three months of 2025, which was reflected in Daimler Truck’s groupwide sales.

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Globally, the Germany-based company’s sales totaled 99,812 trucks and buses in the most recent quarter, down 8% compared with 108,911 vehicles a year earlier, although the company said this was in line with internal expectations.

DTNA and Mercedes-Benz Trucks sales decreased as expected, the company said.

Mercedes-Benz Trucks sold 33,446 vehicles in Q1, a decrease of 18% from 40,838 in the same period 12 months earlier.

However, the company’s Asian truck and Daimler Buses divisions saw higher sales than in Q1 2024. Sales at Trucks Asia jumped 16% year over year to 24,772 units in Q1 from 21,440 in the year-ago period. Daimler Buses posted a sales increase of 11% to 6,206 from 5,596 a year earlier.