- Per August, number of new contracts rose 11 percent over last year
- More than 900,000 commercial vehicles on the books in total
- On average, every third truck, van or bus is financed or leased by DFS
Daimler Financial Services is financing more commercial vehicles than ever before. Worldwide, more than 900,000 trucks, vans and buses are on the road with a contract from Daimler’s Financial Services division – and that’s a new record. The current value of all active contracts is around €30 billion, making Daimler Financial Services the largest captive provider of commercial vehicle financing. In the first eight months of this year alone, the company concluded 183,000 new financing or leasing contracts for commercial vehicles. This figure represents an increase of 11 percent over the previous year. Says Klaus Entenmann, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler Financial Services AG: “Investments in commercial vehicles mostly utilize financial services, so we have all the more reason for offering customers a coherent overall package. First-class commercial vehicles deserve first-class financial services – and they result from a first-class understanding of customers.”
Taking the worldwide average, every third commercial vehicle sold by Daimler comes with a contract for financing or leasing. Trucks, vans and buses from Mercedes-Benz, and also from the Group’s commercial vehicle brands Freightliner, Western Star, Fuso, and BharatBenz can be financed or leased through Daimler Financial Services. In India, where Daimler’s financial services business for BharatBenz was first launched in 2012, about four out of every ten vehicles sold are already financed or leased. In China, the value of newly concluded contracts had more than doubled as of August over the previous year. Traditional markets are also showing powerful growth. In the U.S., new business grew by 17 percent, in Germany the figure even reached 20 percent.
Financing customers are currently paying special attention to flexibility. This is particularly important in the commercial vehicles sector, in order to be able to respond to seasonal variations in utilization, brief spikes in demand and limited-duration jobs. Daimler Financial Services therefore enables customers to make lower payments in months when capacity utilization is low or to increase them when business is booming. Comprehensive packages are also in demand. They include not only financing or leasing, but also maintenance and insurance, for example. “Made-to-measure solutions, care-free packages, and preserving liquidity are three decisive arguments for financing commerical vehicles,” says Entenmann.
Daimler Financial Services supports the sales of the Daimler Group with financing, leasing, and insurance products, fleet management, banking services, and innovative mobility services. At the end of the second quarter of 2014, more than three million cars and commercial vehicles with a total value of €88 billion were on the books.
