Daimler Truck to Name Largest US Plant Site by Christmas

Daimler Truck North America expects to reveal the location of its largest-ever US manufacturing site before Christmas, with the land purchase now in final negotiation, CEO Karin Radstrom said Nov. 6.

The greenfield plant, slated to open in 2029, would become DTNA's biggest production footprint in the United States, overtaking the Cleveland, North Carolina, facility that currently holds that title. Radstrom delivered the timeline during Daimler Truck's third-quarter 2026 earnings call with analysts and investors.

"As you can imagine, there are some negotiations underway, which is why it doesn't make sense to talk about it now, but we will update you once possible, but [DTNA is] very well on track there," Radstrom said.

Construction remains scheduled to begin by the end of 2026, she confirmed, adding: "We're on track with everything."

That wording suggests the site decision itself has effectively been made — a reading consistent with Radstrom's earlier signals. In mid-September she told Transport Topics the search had narrowed to a shortlist. "We have a couple of sites, so I hope we make a decision pretty soon," she said Sept. 13 at an event ahead of the IAA Transportation conference in Hannover, Germany. The company is now holding the chosen location back only until the land deal closes.

Where is the plant likely to land?

The southeastern United States — the Carolinas in particular — remains the heavy favorite, and the logic is grounded in DTNA's existing network rather than speculation. North Carolina has served as the production nucleus for DTNA and its Freightliner brand for decades. Beyond Cleveland, the state hosts the Mount Holly plant, open since 1979, and the Gastonia facility.

DTNA, parent of Freightliner and Western Star, laid out its site-selection criteria when it unveiled the project in early August:

• access to a stable and efficient supply chain and skilled workforce;
• transportation and logistics infrastructure;
• a favorable business environment;
• alignment with the company's long-term manufacturing strategy.

Those criteria read like a checklist written for the Southeast's logistics corridor — but DTNA has not confirmed any location, and the negotiating silence Radstrom cited means nothing is final until the purchase closes.

What does the plant mean for DTNA's network?

The new site materially rebalances DTNA's North American footprint. Today, a majority of the trucks DTNA builds in North America are assembled in Mexico, where the company owns two plants. A 2029-start US facility adds domestic capacity at scale at a moment when Daimler Truck says it anticipates increased demand in both the United States and Canada — the stated reason for an expedited timeline announced in August.

For suppliers and logistics providers around the eventual site, the implications run deep: an OEM plant of this size pulls in tier-one suppliers, component warehousing and truckload flows for years before the first chassis rolls off the line.

Strategy, not tariff response, executives insist

DTNA CEO John O'Leary, speaking to reporters Aug. 6 from Stuttgart after Daimler Truck's board approved the plant, said the plans took years to formulate and formed part of long-term ambitions to retain and build market share — not a reaction to the Trump administration's tariff policies.

"Every time you think of how you run a business, if you stand still, it's kind of like a shark, you die," O'Leary said. "You have to constantly be moving forward."

Daimler Truck frames the investment as production-network optimization; skeptics will note that building US capacity also hedges any tariff regime that penalizes DTNA's Mexico-heavy assembly base — a connection the company explicitly denies.

With the location announcement expected before Christmas, construction start targeted by year-end 2026 and operations set for 2029, the next hard datapoint for shippers and suppliers is the site itself — and the regional supply chain it will anchor.