Mercedes-Benz truck company turns 100
Mercedes-Benz truck company turns 100
By Russell Williamson
Daimler-Benz is preparing to celebrate 100 years of
manufacturing trucks, making it the oldest commercial vehicle
maker in the world.
As the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, Daimler-Benz has come
a long way in those 100 years with its vehicles, both commercial
and passenger cars, now recognized as being at the forefront of
automotive technology.
The company's success can be seen in its position as one of
Indonesia's largest commercial vehicle manufacturers and the
leader in the luxury car market.
However, success did not come easy. Daimler's first truck
prototype, shown to the German government in 1892, was dismissed
as unworkable and a foolish venture.
Undeterred, Gottlieb Daimler pressed on and four years later,
in September 1896, the German vehicle manufacturer, Daimler
Motoren Gesellschaft, published a sales brochure offering its
first range of four different special purpose trucks.
The open trucks were offered with payloads of between 1.5 tons
and five tons. Driven by Daimler-Phoenix engines, with power
outputs of up to 10 hp, the trucks could achieve a top speed of
about 12 kmh.
Following brochure's publication, the first truck, powered by
a combustion engine and used for commercial purposes, was sold to
the British Motor Syndicate on Oct. 1, 1896.
Resembling a horse drawn vehicle, the truck was driven via the
rear wheels by a 4 hp, 2-cylinder 1060cc engine.
The truck weighed 1,200 kilograms (kg) and had a payload of
1,500 kg.
However, with the engine mounted at the rear of the vehicle,
loading proved difficult, so Daimler and his partner, Wilhelm
Maybach, built another model with the engine mounted on the frame
beneath the driver's seat.
A year later, the two men moved the engine to the front of the
vehicle, sitting it over the front axle, a configuration which
remains in trucks to the present day.
Meanwhile, in a nearby town, Carl Benz, having been inspired
by Daimler's first truck, also began working on a combination
delivery truck, which was based on his light motor car, the Velo.
However, with a payload of only 300 kg and powered by a single
cylinder 2.75 hp engine, it was hardly a competitor for Daimler's
workhorse vehicles.
It was not until 1900 that Benz came up with a truck which
could compete.
It was powered by a 14 hp horizontally opposed Contra engine
and could cope with a payload of 5,000 kg.
Benz' company, Benz & Cie, went on to lead the development of
the commercial vehicle industry, which had grown to field 13
manufacturers in the German Empire by 1903.
With military involvement increasing in prewar Germany, so too
did the truck production, but during World War I commercial
deliveries all but ceased.
After the war, Benz continued development of diesel truck
engines and in 1923 fitted the first diesel engines designed for
road vehicles into his five-ton trucks.
These four-cylinder, precombustion chamber engines developed
50 hp at 1,000 rpm and weighed 520 kg.
The following year, Benz, Daimler and MAN all showed different
diesel engines at the Berlin Motor Show. However, in order to
maximize technological development two of the companies merged.
In 1926, Benz & Cie merged with Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft
to form Daimler-Benz.
From these humble beginnings, the Mercedes-Benz commercial
vehicle business unit has grown to cover more than 50 production
and assembly plants around the world.
In 1994, these plants produced nearly 300,000 trucks, buses
and vans, which were sold through more than 6,300 sales and
service outlets worldwide.
Today, Mercedes-Benz trucks are at the forefront of
technology, with powerful engines up to 530 hp, 14.6-liter V8s
and standard features including antilock braking systems,
electro-pneumatic gearshift systems and the very latest in air
bag suspensions.