Detroit Diesel yacht engines rebranded MTU

By IBI Magazine / Ed Slack

German diesel engine manufacturer MTU Friedrichshafen has announced today that in the future, all of the yacht engines manufactured in the DaimlerChrysler group will be sold under the MTU brand. The brand will also include engines that previously bore the brand name of Detroit Diesel. This is part of a brand strategy that MTU Friedrichshafen and its sister company Detroit Diesel say they have agreed to deploy for their new presence on the market.

After DaimlerChrysler took over the US engine manufacturer Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC), the group focused its off-highway activities in the product unit 'DaimlerChrysler Powersystems Off-Highway'.

MTU Friedrichshafen, which has belonged to DaimlerChrysler for over 30 years, will play a leading role in this product area. As the name implies, this business addresses those application segments that are used off-highway. The yacht market counts among those segments.

According to MTU the Series 2000 and 4000, together with the 183 model range, make up the largest portion of revenue generated by the DaimlerChrysler Off-Highway unit on the yacht market. Of all the superyachts ordered in 2001, MTU claims that 56 per cent were equipped with MTU or Detroit Diesel engines. It also claims that almost 80 per cent of all patrol boats in the world market are equipped with MTU propulsion systems.

(22 January 2002)