What will become one of the largest truck manufacturing plants in the United States does not yet have an address. What it does have is a supervisory board signature, with construction slated to begin in late 2026 and a projected workforce in the thousands.

Daimler Truck North America, the long-standing U.S. Class 8 retail market share leader through its Freightliner brand, announced Thursday that Daimler Truck's supervisory board has approved plans for a new greenfield facility in the U.S., purpose-built for vocational and on-highway vehicle production. Construction is expected to begin late this year, with operations targeted for 2029. The company is still evaluating locations and declined to name a preferred site.

"We had our quarter-end supervisory board meeting and I'm proud to announce that we got the approval for the plans to build a new truck manufacturing plant in the U.S.," John O'Leary, president and CEO of DTNA, told reporters during a press conference. "It will be our largest manufacturing plant in the U.S. for trucks."

The project forms part of the parent company's regional growth strategy. Daimler Truck, which became an independent listed company in late 2021 after spinning off from Mercedes-Benz Group, generates its largest share of revenue in North America. "This new manufacturing facility supports our long-term growth plans for North America," said Karin Rådström, CEO of Daimler Truck.

For fleets, the critical metric is not square footage but delivery timing — a point O'Leary placed at the center of the business case.

"Customers, if they order a truck, they need it at a certain date, and if you deliver it two weeks later, for them that's not a good thing because they had a driver waiting to be seated in that truck, probably just completed their training, and now they have to wait," he said. "So even things like delivery are super important."

The internal push for the plant predates the board approval by years. "Several years now I've been making the pitch to John that we need to do something for a while, and just with everything going on, the environment, technology being a big part of it, now was the time to really start preparing for the future," said Jeff Allen, senior vice president of operations at DTNA.

Rebalancing the Mexico Build Ratio

DTNA's production split mirrors a broader pattern across the North American heavy-truck industry, where multiple manufacturers maintain significant assembly capacity in Mexico under the USMCA trade framework. A majority of DTNA's assembly currently runs through Mexico. The new plant is intended to shift that balance.

"When it is completed, it would definitely give us the ability to flex back and forth and improve that percentage in the U.S.," O'Leary said. "It's no mystery to anybody that at this point in time the majority of our build is in Mexico, although it's not a giant majority, but still some majority, and that's fine. However, as you know, it's also nice to be able to have U.S.-built products as well, especially these days."

Asked whether tariffs influenced the decision, O'Leary pointed to the timeline instead.

"But again, it's 2029, so who knows what the situation is going to be," he said. "Again, it's not really about the tariff thing at all. It's far more about we want to have the best, most modern plants out there because we know that will ultimately give us the best cost position, which ultimately is a huge part of the TCO equation, which is something that every customer that we sell to takes very seriously."

Location Clues and Existing Footprint

DTNA's current U.S. plants are located in Cleveland, Gastonia, Mount Holly, and High Point, North Carolina, as well as Gaffney, South Carolina. Southeast-based reporters attempted to narrow down a region. O'Leary declined to confirm, but left a hint.

"I give you full points for creativity and asking a question that I am not going to answer," he said. "However, I would say that you are all smart people and you know the way that the supply chains are typically configured these days and where people tend to locate their plants. You don't see so many up in New Hampshire, for example."

Allen said the site shortlist will be driven by logistics access to customers and suppliers, available land at scale, proximity to technical talent and large labor pools, and a business-friendly environment — a category that, for large-scale manufacturing projects, typically includes state and local tax structures and economic development incentives. The decision timeline is tight.

"We're still in that process of narrowing the scope down," Allen said. "Hopefully that'll be nailed down in the next couple of months."

Portland, Oregon, will retain its existing operations. "The wind tunnel will stay there and the corporate headquarters and the engineering centers and the warranty center and everything else that we have there," O'Leary said.

Designed for Maximum Flexibility

The company emphasized that this will be a truck plant — not a bus plant and not a powertrain plant. Beyond that, the design brief is intentionally open.

"We are absolutely designing the plant for the utmost flexibility for what the future might bring," Allen said. "And that's a big thing that John's challenged me with. We don't know what will happen in the future, and in the past there's been much more rigid conveyance systems and paint systems."

That flexibility extends to powertrains DTNA does not currently produce in volume.

"The new plant will certainly have the capability, as well as zero-emission vehicles, if that starts coming back," O'Leary said. "So yeah, we will have full flexibility."

Built to Scale When the Market Peaks

Automation is expected to increase output per worker without reducing headcount. Even with new technology and efficiency gains, the plant is projected to employ thousands of people, Allen said.

Allen evaluates plants against SQDCM, DTNA's manufacturing scorecard covering safety, quality, delivery, cost, and morale. He noted that product complexity continues to drive quality requirements upward.

"The products we're building are getting much more complex, and with the safety features on a vehicle, we just need to be prepared again with things like vision systems and safety systems on a truck," he said.

The announcement comes as fleets look ahead to 2027 order books, a topic raised during the same call. A 2029 operational start gives DTNA the capacity to meet the next market upswing without lead-time penalties.

"The market is very cyclical, and when it peaks we need to be ready, we need to be ready fast, so getting the delivery out on time," Allen said. "And then cost for sure. It's a very competitive market, so anything we can do to make this the most efficient truck plant, not only in our network, but in the world, is an absolute goal of ours."