# Why haven't Asian and European truck manufacturers
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 21, 2008, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232 "2008-12-21T21:48:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2008, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/1 "2008-12-21T21:48:50Z")
made the inroads into the American big truck market the way those manufacturers have into the automobile and small truck markets? And do American manufacturers of big trucks (e.g. Mack) sell many overseas? If not, why n ot?
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2008, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/2 "2008-12-21T22:49:50Z")
In a way, they have. The top three heavy truck manufacturers are multinationals which own several brands in different countries. Mack is owned by Volvo, Freightliner by Daimler AG:
> **[Truck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck#Heavy_truck_market_worldwide)**
>
> A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction, with a cabin that is independent of the payload portion of the vehicle. Smaller varieties may be mechanically similar to some automobiles. Commercial trucks can be very large and powerful and may be configured to be mounted with specialized equipment, s...
The third place, PACCAR, is an American outfit which owns Kenworth and Peterbilt. You will note that also own the European DAF and Leyland brands.
I’ve seen European makes on the roads here.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/3 "2008-12-21T22:56:28Z")
About 10% of the new truck tractors sold in the US are Volvo.
> **[Welcome to Volvo Trucks](https://www.volvotrucks.com/en-en/)**
>
> The home of Volvo Trucks on the web. Includes details of the full range of trucks, information on accessories & training, finance, fleet management, services, contracts, renting, media galleries and much more.
There are a bunch of smaller (furniture delivery sized) box trucks made by Japanese & German maufacturers. I couldn’t find a market share number quickly, but I’d bet it’s at least 20 & maybe 30%.
Not sure your premises hold up.
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/4 "2008-12-21T23:12:36Z")
Trucks in Japan, at least, are significantly smaller than US ones. They look about the same but the truck and the cargo container (or whatever the hauled part is) are probably 70% smaller. I suspect that European trucks are smaller as well. And since you really sort of want to maximize the volume that you’re trucking, there isn’t a benefit to having a smaller vehicle to sell, unlike you can when you’re selling to the average person for personal transportation.
Certainly you could develop a larger vehicle for a foreign market, but it’s going to be more likely that you’d simply buy your way in.
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### Author:  [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/5 "2008-12-22T00:11:43Z")
Toyota’s got the Tundra, Nissan has the Titan, Honda has some ugly thing I can’t remember the name of. I know that at least in the south, the Tundra does quite well.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/6 "2008-12-22T00:17:15Z")
Mack is owned by Volvo who is owned by Ford?
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/7 "2008-12-22T00:22:16Z")
> [@Renee](#):
>
> Toyota’s got the Tundra, Nissan has the Titan, Honda has some ugly thing I can’t remember the name of. I know that at least in the south, the Tundra does quite well.
Those are full-sized pickup trucks. I believe the OP was talking about “large trucks” as in semis, box trucks, etc. Hence the reference to Mack.
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### Author:  [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/8 "2008-12-22T00:26:05Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#):
>
> Mack is owned by Volvo who is owned by Ford?
The Volvo in this case is the Volvo group, which makes trucks, buses and construction equipment. The car business was sold to Ford in 1999:
> **[Volvo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo)**
>
> The Volvo Group (Swedish: Volvokoncernen, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}pronounced \[ˈvɔlːvʊkɔnˌsæːɳɛn\]; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo (\[ˈakːsɪɛbʊˌlɑːɡɛt ˈvɔlːvʊ\]), shortened to AB Volvo (\[ˈoːˈbeː ˈvɔlːvʊ\]), stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is...
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### Author:  [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/9 "2008-12-22T00:45:43Z")
HINO, a Toyota company, is also a North American truck brand. They had 15% [market share](http://www.hino.com/news/story_566.php?PHPSESSID=bfbc45995c8303fa409857ef2c166bcf) of the class 6 (19,501-26,000 lb) segment and 3% of the class 7 (26,001-33,000 lb) segment in 2007.
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/10 "2008-12-22T00:58:12Z")
I think trucks and buses in other countries are somewhat smaller and more compact , probably due to narrower roads etc.
I do not remember seeing huge American MACK trucks in Europe or China.
I do not think I have seen American buses in Europe or in China but I have seen plenty of Spanish [Irizar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irizar) in Europe and China (they have a factory in China).
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### Author:  [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/11 "2008-12-22T01:14:36Z")
> [@yabob](#):
>
> Those are full-sized pickup trucks. I believe the OP was talking about “large trucks” as in semis, box trucks, etc. Hence the reference to Mack.
ohhhh. Nevahmind.
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### Author:  [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/12 "2008-12-22T04:00:53Z")
I know of at least one Iveco dealer (see the list from the Wikipedia page posted by yabob) in the San Francisco area.
Ed
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### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/13 "2008-12-22T04:21:18Z")
Truck maker Mitsubishi Fuso is almost wholly owned by Daimler (which sold their stake in Mitsubishi Motors, the passenger car maker). Within the Daimler group they fill the role of building light and medium trucks for developing markets (SE Asia, Africa, ME, Latin America and E. Europe), and have been doing pretty well at it. Bigger trucks and bigger markets are handled by other group companies. They do a little bit in the NAFTA market, but mostly that’s through tie-ups with US-based Sterling (Also a member of Daimler).
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### Author:  [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/14 "2008-12-22T15:25:18Z")
European tractors are the same size as stateside (height and width). The big seven Mfgs you see on the road are: Volvo, Scania, DAF, MAN, IVECO, Renault, and Mercedes. The European tractors are shorter; usually only one tandem drive axle and no gigantic sleeper box that you see on some custom trucks in the US. They have sleepers but usually more modest. They are shorter coupled to the trailers (reduced overall length) to accommodate the smaller roads / tighter turns and better aerodynamics. The trailers tend to have three axles rather than the two tandem axles in the US and are generally not adjustable for wheelbase.
One plus for driving in Europe is that the trucks are tightly monitored for speed and what lanes they can use on the “interstate” highways.
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/15 "2008-12-22T18:39:08Z")
I see an increasing number of Hyundai \*trailers \*on the road now, but so far there are no Asian truckmakers selling in the US.
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### Author:  [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/16 "2008-12-22T19:16:31Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#):
>
> Trucks in Japan, at least, are significantly smaller than US ones. They look about the same but the truck and the cargo container (or whatever the hauled part is) are probably 70% smaller. I suspect that European trucks are smaller as well. And since you really sort of want to maximize the volume that you’re trucking, there isn’t a benefit to having a smaller vehicle to sell, unlike you can when you’re selling to the average person for personal transportation.
>
> Certainly you could develop a larger vehicle for a foreign market, but it’s going to be more likely that you’d simply buy your way in.
I thought cargo containers were globally standardized–the whole point is that they can go from factory to truck to ship to train to truck without ever needing to be opened, hardly. Is that not true?
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/17 "2008-12-22T19:42:50Z")
> [@MandaJo](#):
>
> I thought cargo containers were globally standardized–the whole point is that they can go from factory to truck to ship to train to truck without ever needing to be opened, hardly. Is that not true?
ISO containers are indeed standardized and there are flatbed trailers which can carry these but normal trailers are not flatbed, they are their own “box” and have to be loaded/unloaded with forklifts.
> [@](#):
>
> [Containerization - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containerization#ISO_standard)
>
> There are five common standard lengths, 20-ft (6.1 m), 40-ft (12.2 m), 45-ft (13.7 m), 48-ft (14.6 m), and 53-ft (16.2 m).
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### Author:  [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/18 "2008-12-22T19:58:00Z")
> [@sailor](#):
>
> ISO containers are indeed standardized and there are flatbed trailers which can carry these but normal trailers are not flatbed, they are their own “box” and have to be loaded/unloaded with forklifts.
But presumably the trucks in Japan have to be at least big enough to haul a flat bed big enough to carry an ISO container.
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/19 "2008-12-22T19:58:11Z")
I see quite a few Isuzu on the road. I don’t know if you count them as “big,” they aren’t Mack-sized, but are box trucks used commercially.
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-havent-asian-and-european-truck-manufacturers/478232/20 "2008-12-22T20:41:14Z")
> [@MandaJo](#):
>
> I thought cargo containers were globally standardized–the whole point is that they can go from factory to truck to ship to train to truck without ever needing to be opened, hardly. Is that not true?
I don’t recall ever seeing something shipping container sized going down the street. My guess would be that they use a train to transport containers most of the way, then break them down into smaller trucks when they get close enough to the target destination.
And possibly, internally, they use smaller ISO containers.
I really don’t know.
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