Freightliner Opens Fifth-Generation Cascadia Order Book
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Freightliner on April 10 opened the order book for the fifth-generation Cascadia tractor, the Daimler Truck North America unit unveiled in October.
Prospects for orders in the months since a glitzy launch at American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition picked up initially.
But as the second quarter of 2025 begins, a gloomier U.S. economic outlook, the introduction of tariffs and uncertainty around potential changes to emission regulations are all crimping fleet managers’ willingness to commit to equipment outlay.
Preliminary data show North American Class 8 orders in March fell 8.3% year on year to 16,000 trucks and decreased 12.6% compared with February, according to ACT Research.
FTR Transportation Intelligence said net orders for March declined 22% year on year to 15,700 trucks and were down 36.6% compared with the seven-year average of 24,760 for the month.
DTNA sold 38,992 trucks and buses in the first quarter of 2025, a decrease of 16% compared with 46,229 vehicles in the same period in 2024, parent company Daimler Truck said April 8. Daimler Truck said the decrease in North American sales was expected.
International Motors revealed a matching decline a day later.
Less than a month earlier, top executives at Daimler Truck were predicting a rebound in on-highway truck sales after the weak freight environment of the past couple of years but were already noticing a growing reluctance among carriers in the U.S. for capital expenditure.
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Orders slowed toward the end of February and into the start of March due to uncertainty related to tariffs, Chief Financial Officer Eva Scherer said during a March 14 conference call with analysts.
And as many as 350 staff are being laid off in April at Volvo Trucks North America’s New River Valley assembly plant in Dublin, Va., largely due to soft demand, the company told Transport Topics.
Freightliner sold 86,470 Class 8 trucks in the U.S. in 2024, a decrease of 11.2% from 97,370 in 2023, according to Wards Intelligence data released Jan. 14. The Cascadia is the best-selling Class 8 tractor in North America.
Series production of the fifth-generation Cascadia — the first revamp in five years — is scheduled to begin in mid-2025, the company said in October.
Initially, engine options for the tractor will be Detroit DD13 and DD15 power plants. However, starting in 2026, Cascadias will be available with Cummins’ X15 diesel and X15N natural gas-powered engines.
The powertrain is located behind a revamped Cascadia grille, one of several changes immediately visible when encountering the tractor for the first time, including reconfigured headlights and updated A-pillar deflectors.
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Freightliner launched the latest iteration of the Cascadia with one eye on the expected introduction of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles and the 2022 Heavy-Duty Nitrogen Oxides rule by the Environmental Protection Agency.
A rush among fleets to “pre-buy” new trucks was anticipated before the stricter federal emission standards were due to take effect.
Truck revamps and launches are planned many years ahead, and Freightliner was hardly the only original equipment manufacturer to position itself for the expected upturn in on-highway tractor purchases.
On April 8, Mack Trucks unveiled a new flagship longhaul tractor, the Pioneer. Volvo Group unit Mack’s order book for the Pioneer was opened almost simultaneously with the launch, and production will begin later this year.
Sister company Volvo Trucks North America unveiled the first large-scale overhaul of its VNR regional haul tractor March 10 at ATA’s Technology & Maintenance Council Annual Meeting. VTNA also redesigned its own flagship longhaul tractor, the VNL.
But anecdotal evidence suggests uncertainty over the wider economy — including as a result of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration — is tamping down appetite for risk and capital spending even more severely than previously forecast.
ACT Research cut its 2025 Class 8 demand forecast by about 8% to 288,800 from 316,500 tractors and trucks in February, reflecting growing apprehension about the prospects for the U.S. economy.
Price increases due to raw material tariffs — particularly steel, aluminum and rubber — could hurt demand even more. VTNA already announced plans to raise its truck prices in May.
