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Luxury Carmaker Daimler To Open Branch In Southern Africa For Commercial Vehicles

Luxury Carmaker Daimler To Open Branch In Southern Africa For Commercial Vehicles

Daimler, the second-largest truck manufacturer in the world, plans to open six new regional centers around the world for commercial vehicles including one in Southern Africa, according to a report in AutomotiveWorld.

The Stuttgart-based maker of high-end cars and trucks has just opened a new commercial-vehicle base for Middle East and North Africa in Dubai. Daimler Commercial Vehicles Middle East & North Africa will support 19 countries.

Branches are also planned in Southern Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Latin America within the next few months, AutomotiveWorld reported. Until now, Daimler had managed these regions from its headquarters in Germany.

Daimler is the second-largest truck manufacturer and 13th-largest car manufacturer in the world. In addition to cars, Daimler manufactures buses and provides financial services. In 2014 Daimler sold 2.5 million vehicles, according to PRNewswire.

Decentralization will keep Daimler’s business in tune with the market, according to AutomotiveWorld.

Worldwide, Daimler sells brands including Mercedes-Benz cars and vans, Daimler trucks, buses and components.

The new Dubai branch will include sales of the group’s full commercial vehicles portfolio.

Egypt, U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia are the three biggest sales markets in the region for Daimler’s trucks, vans and buses, an they account for about two thirds of all deliveries in the Middle East North Africa region. Sales of trucks, buses and vans in the region grew 23 percent on average between 2011 and 2014. In 2014 the group sold 45,900 commercial vehicles in the region.

Sales in the new Dubai office will include Algeria, Egypt, Libya and Morocco.

Daimler is one of a consortium of three German automakers—BMW, Daimler AG, and Volkswagen — that agreed to buy Nokia’s Here digital maps division, according to Cnet. This was seen as an indication that the automakers were interested in automated cars.

As of 2014, Daimler owns or has shares in car, bus, truck and motorcycle brands including Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG, Smart Automobile, Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Buses, Setra, BharatBenz, Mitsubishi Fuso, MV Agusta as well as shares in Denza, KAMAZ, Beijing Automotive Group, and Renault-Nissan Alliance, Wiki reports.