Cummins, Eaton receive ‘killing’ remark from Daimler

Frank Reintjes, Daimler Trucks’ global head of powertrain and manufacturing, has said that for proprietary, that is independent, suppliers of engines, transmissions and drive axles in North America, the complexity of meeting the operating requirements ‘of all customers and all their different applications, is killing them’. 

In an interview with the US weekly publication Transport Topics, Reintjes said that, although he ‘very much respected’ Cummins, Eaton, Meritor and Dana as competitors, he maintained they were unable to match the mission-tailored powertrain capability of vertically-integrated truck and bus makers such as Daimler.

He cited the trend towards despeeding of engines in combination with ‘taller’ axle ratios and automated mechanical transmisions with strategic electonically-managed gearshift timings in order to enhance fuel economy while meeting tough pollutant emission limits.

For such efficiency programmes to be optimised, Reintjes said: ‘very sophisticated management’ of software was needed, requiring, on the hardware side, ‘very intelligent controllers’ able to communicate with each other. 

That, he declared, was the ‘big advantage’ of Daimler’s integrated powertrain approach.