Fuso entrusts majority of its European distribution to Emil Frey

Fuso’s existing dealer and service network spans 32 European countries. According to the Fuso Trucks website, the company currently operates around 800 service points within the Mercedes-Benz service network for sales and support related to the Canter – at least, this has been the arrangement until now.

Daimler Truck has since announced that Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) has agreed a distribution partnership with the Emil Frey Group for 21 countries. These include major markets such as Germany, France, and Poland, as well as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Austria, Romania, Switzerland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.

In these countries, the Emil Frey Group will take over sales, aftersales, and service operations for Fuso Truck. This reorganisation of the brand’s European distribution is part of the integration of the Fuso and Hino brands under the new holding company Archion, which will commence operations on 1 April 2026. A key message from those responsible is that ‘light-duty trucks from the Fuso brand will continue to be available in all current European markets’. This also applies to the battery-electric Fuso eCanter. Specifically regarding the small electric truck, Daimler Truck emphasises in its latest announcement that MFTBC aims to accelerate the transition towards sustainable transport solutions together with Emil Frey, while strengthening its position as one of the market leaders in the light-duty truck segment in Europe.

Canter models for Europe produced in Tramagal

Andreas Deuschle, Head of Fuso International Sales and Customer Services, commented: “Mitsubishi FUSO is providing light duty commercial vehicles, produced in our plant in Tramagal, Portugal, for our European customer since 1980. The partnership with Emil Frey brings together two strong players in the European truck market. We are confident that combining FUSO’s innovative products with Emil Frey’s extensive network and expertise will deliver exceptional value to our customers.”

Gerhard Schürmann, CEO of the Emil Frey Group, added: “We are honored to expand and further strengthen our longstanding partnership with FUSO by becoming the distribution partner in additional strategic regions across Europe. Emil Frey’s strong customer focus and deep market expertise, combined with FUSO’s innovative and sustainable products and outstanding quality, will enable us to deliver the best possible service to our customers and dealer partners in each country.”

For Fuso, the newly structured distribution in Europe is not the only change. The brand is currently merging with Hino Motors. The key points of this merger were outlined by the parent companies, Daimler Truck and Toyota, last autumn. The brands will operate under a new holding company named Archion but will remain as separate operational entities. The new structure will take effect in April 2026—coinciding with the Japanese fiscal year 2026, which begins on 1 April and ends on 31 March of the following year.

One of the core objectives of the merger is an ‘integrated platform strategy […] to develop a high-performance and market-oriented product portfolio under the respective brands’. The companies aim to explore how they can synergistically utilise their platforms for heavy, medium, and light commercial vehicles without diluting their individual brand identities. After all, both brands will continue to compete in the market.

Merger aims to unlock synergies

The integration and streamlining of development, procurement, production, and logistics are also being targeted. “Consolidating development activities helps avoid duplicate investments and accelerates the merging of product platforms—laying the foundation for future innovations,” Daimler Truck clarified in October. Additionally, pooling purchasing power is expected to generate significant cost savings across numerous direct and indirect procurement areas.

Cost savings are also a key focus in eliminating redundant structures resulting from the merger. Against this backdrop, Archion intends to ‘consolidate indirect functions’ and concentrate production sites. By the end of 2028, the five Japanese truck production facilities are set to be reduced to three locations: the Kawasaki plant (Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture), the Koga plant (Koga City, Ibaraki Prefecture), and the Nitta plant (Ota City, Gunma Prefecture). Hino’s Hamura plant will be transferred to the Toyota Motor Corporation, while Mitsubishi Fuso’s Nakatsu plant will be integrated into the Kawasaki factory.

Ambitions in the electric truck sector

Another stated goal of the partnership is for the holding company to ‘contribute to solving challenges in areas such as CO₂ neutrality and logistics efficiency for commercial vehicles’. The focus will be on developing CASE technologies (“Connected, Autonomous, Shared, Electric”), with a particular emphasis on electrification. In addition to aiming for “market-leading products in all zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) segments,” hydrogen is also explicitly mentioned.

Mitsubishi Fuso already offers the aforementioned eCanter, a small battery-electric truck, and is part of a consortium in Japan exploring battery-swapping for such vehicles. Hino is developing both battery-electric and fuel-cell-based powertrains for markets ranging from North America to Asia. In Japan, hydrogen plays a significant role in political strategies, and Toyota is also regarded as a pioneer in fuel-cell technology.

daimlertruck.com