Daimler Truck profits drop in Q3 as tariffs and weak demand squeeze earnings

Speaking to analysts on November 7, Daimler Truck North America CFO Eva Scherer said profits fell more than 60% in the third quarter compared to a year earlier and will continue to slide this quarter as the Trump administration’s tariffs on trucks and their parts continue to impact the company’s business.

This anticipated trajectory would mirror that of rival International: The CFO of Traton SE, International’s parent company, said last week that the OEM could post a Q4 operating loss as tariffs get added to the weight of falling orders and rising costs.

The North American operations of Daimler Truck Holding AG, which also include Freightliner and Western Star as well as Thomas Built Buses, sold 30,225 units in the three months that ended September 30. That figure was down 39% from the same period in 2024. Revenues for the quarter fell by a third to about $4.6 billion, and earnings before interest and taxes slid 65% to $295 million.

Scherer pointed out that the company's sales picked up in September and October relative to the two months prior, but also qualified that improvement as being on far lower numbers than the company would like to see. As for a turnaround in customer activity, Scherer was frank.

“We do hope, of course, that the market will pick up,” she said. “We do not expect to see it at the moment in quarter one, and it will probably happen more towards the second half of the year.”

DTNA executives expect sales in North America to finish 2025 closer to the bottom of their forecast of 135,000 to 155,000. Based on the nearly 108,000 vehicles the company sold through the end of September, that implies fourth-quarter sales will be generally in line with Q3’s. DTNA sold about 191,000 trucks in 2024, and the company’s leaders have responded in part to the order downturn by cutting about 2,700 jobs since this time last year.

Among the other items Scherer discussed on her conference call were:

• Daimler’s leaders haven’t yet decided whether to move more truck assembly work from Mexico to the U.S. The situation around the newly imposed truck tariffs is still unclear in some respects, and her team is working through exactly how they might respond.
• For the same reason, it’s also too early to talk about Daimler Truck imposing more surcharges to offset the effects of the new tariffs.

Globally, Daimler Truck posted a net profit of about $530 million on more than $13.2 billion in sales. Scherer told analysts parts of Europe are showing signs of improving demand, but noted that key Asian markets such as Japan and Indonesia continue to struggle. The company sold a little more than 98,000 vehicles during the third quarter, a drop of 15% from the same period last year.

Shares of Daimler (Ticker: DTG) fell slightly after the company’s earnings announcement and conference call. Over the past six months, they have fallen a few percentage points, leaving the company’s market value at about $20 billion.