LOUISVILLE, Ky. (April 1, 2005) — No, it wasn’t an April Fool’s trick, Freightliner really is rolling in good times again, according to the North American truck manufacturing giant’s president Rainer Schmueckle.

Schmueckle called 2004 a banner year for both its heavy and medium duty lineups. “I can tell you that 2004 was the best year in the history of our company,” he told truck writers at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Ky.

Freightliner Group — owned by DaimlerChrysler and parent company of Sterling and Western Star Trucks — saw total NAFTA class 8 sales increase by 29 percent, and medium-duty rise by 18 percent last year. Total revenue across the group was up 25 percent, from 9 billion to 12.4 billion, compared to 2003. Those numbers also include Detroit Diesel, a sister company that’s also a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler.

Despite what he called “doom and gloom” speculation that the bullish market will crash just after new stringent EPA emission regulations take effect in 2007, Schmueckle predicts continued growth is sales and market share throughout 2006, and at least for the early part of 2007. He said he expects a 20 percent increase in heavy-duty for 2005 — up to 298,000 total units sold — and about 18 percent in class 6-7. Following that, the industry could experience one of the largest market increases ever. “In 2006, we should threaten the 1999 market record.”

Schmueckle dismissed claims the bottom will fall out of the industry do to another massive pre-buy at the foot of the ’07 regs, “These forecasts will not hold true,” he said. ‘First of all, the (OEMs) don’t have the capacity to even meet a pre-buy.”

As for the post ’07 era, Freightliner announced it will introduce a new flagship highway truck. While short on details, the company did say it will be the successor to the Columbia line, available in 2007. “We’ll have to keep you in suspense for now, but I promise it’s a beauty,” Schmueckle said.

The truck will be coupled with a brand new engine platform from Detroit Diesel. The 16-lire big bore engine — and likely replacement for the series 60 between 2007 and 2010 — will be integrated in the Freightliner lineup in 2007.

Last year about 76.4 percent of Freightliner trucks had DD or Mercedes engines, and the company expect that number to rise to 81 percent in 2005, said Carsten Reinhardt, president & CEO of Detroit Diesel Corp.