The new company name is a made-up word that is meant to say it all. Archion combines the English term “Arches” for arch and the term “Eons” for eternity – and is intended to symbolize, on the one hand, the connection between the partners and, on the other hand, the goal of the partnership: shaping the future of transport for a better life for the next generation. In the joint venture of this name, the truck manufacturer Daimler Truck and the Japanese car company Toyota want to join forces for the Asian market to develop light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles. Archion will in future hold all shares in the Daimler truck subsidiary Mitsubishi Fuso and the Toyota subsidiary Hino, as the two parent companies announced on Thursday. The companies had announced a long time ago that they wanted to work together in Asia. In June they then founded a joint venture that is scheduled to begin operations in April 2026. Less dependent on China “Today we are taking the next step to make our shared vision a reality: With Archion we want to shape the future of commercial mobility,” said Daimler Truck Asia boss Karl Deppen, who will take over as Archion’s CEO. “With the two strong brands Fuso and Hino, we will offer products and solutions that are specifically tailored to the requirements of our customers.” According to the two partners, the aim is to conquer the Asian market together, become less dependent on China and share development costs for drives that should no longer emit greenhouse gases. The manufacturer Archion will also offer its vehicles all over the world. This includes, among other things, the lightweight Fuso-Canter delivery van, which has an electric drive and a combustion engine and is sold in Europe and the USA – there under the “Rizon” brand. Archion goes public in Tokyo. Daimler Truck and Toyota want to use the merger to save costs and make their plants more efficient. “The companies are exploring ways to synergize their heavy-, medium- and light-duty vehicle platforms to increase product competitiveness, realize cost advantages and enable faster product launches,” the companies said. To this end, the five Japanese factories of Mitsubishi Fuso and Hino are to be concentrated in three locations by the end of 2028: Hino’s Hamura factory will be transferred to Toyota. According to the announcement, Fuso’s Nakatsu factory will be consolidated into the Kawasaki factory. Cooperation in the areas of development, procurement and logistics is also planned. The Archion shares will be listed on the Tokyo stock exchange. In the long term, Daimler Truck and Toyota want to sell 50 percent of the shares to investors and each want to keep 25 percent of Archion.More on the topicThe collaboration should actually have started much earlier. Daimler Truck and Toyota had already presented the plan in spring 2023. Because Hino had provided false data on the emissions of 105,000 diesel engines sold in America, Daimler Truck suspended the signing of the contracts in 2024. In January of this year, the Japanese truck manufacturer reached an agreement with the US authorities to both end the criminal investigation and settle the civil claims, and paid a total of around 1.17 billion euros in penalties and compensation to the US Department of Justice and other authorities. The company also has to repair the affected engines from 2017 to 2019 and set up an environmental program to mitigate the consequences of exhaust emissions.
Go to Source