The automotive industry in general is constantly involved in buying and selling competing businesses. This is absolutely the case in the worldwide truck manufacturing industry.
Looking at the short list of truck makers currently selling their vehicles in Europe you would be tempted to think that every single one is independent of each other. You would be wrong.
Let’s take a look at all of the major manufacturers operating in Europe:
- DAF Trucks
- Isuzu Trucks
- Iveco Trucks
- MAN Truck & Bus
- Mercedes Trucks
- Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks
- Renault Trucks
- Scania
- Volvo Trucks
All these business manufacture trucks over 6 tonnes GVW for the European market. From this list of nine manufacturers, six are under shared ownership.
Traton Group
German commercial vehicle manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus is owned by Traton, the same company that owns Scania. The Traton business is Volkswagen owned business that was set up to manage its truck business which include Navistar in the US and VW Truck & Bus in Brazil. In short MAN & Scania are both owned by VW.
Volvo Group
There is a long history or swapping shares between the Volvo Group and Renault. The end result over the years is that the Renault Trucks brand is now owned by the Volvo Group – although this has nothing to do with the Renault cars brand or the Volvo cars brand. The group also manufactures construction equipment and owns the Mack truck brand in the USA.
Daimler Truck
Mercedes Trucks is owned by the world’s largest truck maker, German Daimler Truck which, in turn, owns the Mitsubishi Fuso truck brand in Japan. In the UK the Fuso range of Canter trucks are sold by the Mercedes Truck dealerships (Fuso used to be sold by Volvo truck dealers prior to the acquisition by Daimler). The Daimler business also owns Freightliner, Western Star and the BharatBenz brand in India.
PACCAR
Although American company, PACCAR only owns the DAF brand that is sold in the European (and other) markets, it also owns Kenworth and Peterbilt in the USA.
Iveco
Until 2022, Iveco was part of the Case New Holland Group (CNH) but now operates alone and is listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange. It is, however largely owned by Fiat’s Agnelli family.
Why are all Rubbish Trucks called Dennis?
Making refuse trucks since the 1920s, Dennis Eagle (as it is now known) has specialised in this niche – at one point the company also made fire engines and coaches, but these were split into different companies at the end of the 1990s. the dustcart division, Dennis Eagle was in the hands of a number of investment banks until it was bought by Ros Roca which went on to be part of the Dutch Royal Terberg Group.
Where have the Old Truck Brands Gone?
There may still be some old truck brands out on the roads of Europe and the UK that don’t exist any more.
| Truck Brand | Logo | What Happened? | Closure Date |
| AEC |  | Under the British Leyland Motor Corporation, the last Associated Equipment Company truck rolled off the production line in 1977 | 1977 |
| Albion Motors |  | Bought by Leyland Motors in the 1950’s the Scottish brand was discontinued in 1972 | 1972 |
| Bedford |  | Sold to AWD trucks in 1987 which finished making trucks in 1998 | 1998 |
| ERF |  | Bought by Canada’s Western Star in 1996, which was bought by Freightliner in 2000 who sold ERF to MAN the same year. The ERF trucks became badge engineered MAN trucks and were withdrawn in 2007 | July 2007 |
| Foden |  | Acquired by PACCAR in 1980, Foden production was taken over by Leyland in 1998 and Fodens became re-badged DAF trucks | 2010 |
| Guy |  | Under the British Leyland Motor Corporation, the last Guy branded lorry was made in 1982 | 1982 |
| Leyland |  | Changing from Leyland to Leyland DAF in 1987 after splitting from the newly renamed Rover Group, Leyland Trucks was bought by DAF. | |
| Leyland DAF |  | Formed in 1987 and went into administration in 1993, Leyland DAF ceased soon after DAF and Leyland Trucks were taken over by PACCAR. | 2002 |
| Scammell |  | Bought by Leyland in the 1950s, specialist truck manufacturer, Scammell was finished in 1988 | 1988 |
| Seddon Atkinson |  | Bought by International Harvester in 1974, Seddon Atkinson was later sold to Spain’s Enasa, which in turn was bought by Italy’s Iveco in 1991. Dwindling sales lead to closure of production in 2006 with the brand winding up in 2009 | 2009 |