Daimler Truck North America is close to choosing a site for what it says will be its largest truck plant in the United States. On September 13, at an event in Hannover, Germany, Daimler Truck’s chief executive, Karin Radstrom, said, “We have a couple of sites, so I hope we make a decision pretty soon.”
Construction is set to begin late this year, with operations in 2029. That schedule is the reason for the hurry. As Radstrom put it, “you can imagine that we have to decide pretty soon.”
Trade coverage places North Carolina and South Carolina among the contenders. Neither the company nor either state has confirmed a site.
What the Company Says It Is Building
The plant will assemble vocational and on-highway trucks, the company said when it announced the project on August 6. It described flexible assembly systems and automated manufacturing technology, and said the plant will create thousands of jobs over time.
“It will be the largest manufacturing plant in the U.S. for trucks when all is said and done,” DTNA’s president and chief executive, John O’Leary, told Commercial Carrier Journal.
The company has not published an investment figure, an acreage, a building size or a job count. For a county evaluating its own chances, that absence is itself information: the requirement is being described to a short list privately, not to the market.
What It Says It Is Looking For
DTNA’s announcement lists 4 criteria:
- Access to skilled labor
- Established supply chains
- Transport infrastructure
- Favorable business conditions
FreightWaves reported 2 more from the company:
- Available land at scale
- Access to technical talent
None of that is unusual. What makes it useful is the order in which those items get tested. Supplier proximity and labor depth are answered by where a company already operates, long before anyone walks a site.
O’Leary gave the geography away in the same coverage, noting that truck plants are not spread evenly across the country. “You don’t see so many up in New Hampshire,” he said.
Why the Carolinas Keep Coming Up
Daimler already runs operations in Cleveland, Mount Holly, Gastonia and High Point, North Carolina, and in Gaffney, South Carolina.
The company is also moving work toward that base. In July it said truck manufacturing at its Portland, Oregon plant would end by the close of 2026, affecting about 375 of roughly 3,000 Portland-area employees, with production shifting to the Carolinas. Portland keeps the North American headquarters, engineering and testing.
A company consolidating assembly into a region rarely leaves it for the next plant. That is the strongest argument for the Carolinas, and it was made by Daimler’s own production decisions rather than by any state’s pitch.
The Mexico Piece
A slim majority of DTNA’s trucks are built in Mexico, according to Commercial Carrier Journal’s account of the announcement. The new plant gives the company room to shift that balance.
O’Leary described tariffs as part of the operating environment but secondary to longer-running factors: market demand, plant modernization and supply chain resilience.
The decision rests on where trucks can be built well for decades, not on a policy that could change.
The Clock Is the Hard Part
A company that plans to break ground within months is not evaluating sites that need 2 years of due diligence. Wetlands work, rezoning, a water or sewer extension and a utility commitment all have to be finished, or nearly so, before the shortlist is drawn.
That is why the competition for a project like this closes long before the announcement. The sites in the running were made ready for reasons that had nothing to do with Daimler.
What It Means for Counties
For nearly every county in the Carolinas, this particular plant is already decided or nearly so. The value is in what the search says about the next one.
Daimler is choosing on supplier depth, labor and logistics, in a region where it already builds trucks. A county that wants to be on a list like this competes by being ready in advance, and by knowing which industries already have plants within a few hours’ drive.
The announcement, whenever it lands, will name a state, a county and an incentive package. The work that decided it happened years earlier.
Sources
- Daimler Truck North America, “Daimler Truck North America Plans to Build New U.S. Manufacturing Facility,” August 6, 2026.
- Commercial Carrier Journal, “Daimler Truck North America Announces New U.S. Manufacturing Facility,” August 6, 2026.
- FreightWaves, “Daimler to build largest US truck manufacturing plant,” August 7, 2026.
- Transport Topics, “Daimler Truck narrows field for largest U.S. plant site,” Keiron Greenhalgh, September 14, 2026.
- Oregon Public Broadcasting, “Daimler to move truck manufacturing from Portland to Carolinas,” July 29, 2026.
Cover photo: Daimler Truck vehicle lineup. Daimler Truck AG, released March 15, 2023.
