When Karl Deppen, then President and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, and I spoke in the summer of 2025 , Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus and Hino Motors were still preparing for a business integration that promised to reshape the Japanese commercial vehicle industry. The strategic logic was straightforward. Combine scale, share engineering and manufacturing capabilities, and create a stronger global commercial vehicle player while preserving the identities of two established brands.

On April 1, 2026, that plan became reality. Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus and Hino Motors came together under ARCHION Corporation, with Deppen taking over as President and CEO. FUSO and HINO remained distinct brands but now operated within a common strategic framework.

Six months later, at IAA Transportation in Hanover, the question was less about the integration itself than what the new organization was doing with it.

A conversation with Deppen, now at ARCHION’s helm, and Franziska Cusumano, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, revealed an organization moving beyond merger mechanics to execution.

Platform consolidation, manufacturing optimization, technology sharing and a more focused Mitsubishi Fuso are beginning to define the next phase.

For Deppen, the objective remains clear. The “ultimate goal” is to give customers “a better, stronger product.” For Cusumano, the opportunity is broader. FUSO now has a chance to think less like a small brand within a large corporate family and more like a company with its own strategic space.

The result is a story that is no longer simply about two truck manufacturers coming together. It is about how they intend to compete as electrification, autonomy, software, geopolitics and changing customer economics transform the commercial vehicle industry.

The first test for ARCHION was organizational. The new group had to establish an ownership and governance model while avoiding one of the most obvious risks of a merger: losing the identity and customer relationships that made both brands valuable in the first place.

Deppen says the intention from the outset was to keep FUSO and HINO’s brand profiles distinct. Both have established reputations, loyal customers and extensive distributor networks. Rather than create a single commercial identity, ARCHION serves as the umbrella organization setting strategic direction, while the brands focus on customers and execution.

The structure is deliberately lean. The holding company handles targets, capital allocation and core strategy, with a Group CTO who coordinates vehicle-platform integration. Everything else stays with the brands.

The ownership model has also changed significantly. Daimler Truck and Toyota Motor Corporation each retain a 25% stake, while the remaining 50% is publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market. Deppen sees the new structure as an important step toward building the Group’s credibility and independence.

But the organizational architecture is only the starting point. The real measure of the merger will be whether ARCHION can translate scale into better economics and better products.

That is where the platform strategy becomes critical.

Two Brands, One Platform Strategy

In my experience of having worked for a commercial vehicle OEM, platform strategy is not easy to implement in this industry, unlike in the passenger car sector. Deppen agrees the task is harder, if anything. Carmakers typically use “common platform” to mean “throwing everything away and investing a ton to build everything new.”

Trucks are inherently modular, and customers tend to care deeply about some elements of the vehicle while paying far less attention to others.

That distinction is central to ARCHION’s approach.

Deppen argues that the company does not need to make every component identical. If a customer does not care whether a particular component comes from Fuso or Hino, there is an opportunity to share it. If the customer expects clear differentiation, the brands should retain it.

This enables a more selective approach to integration. Cab architecture, exterior and interior design, powertrain components, transmissions and axles can be assessed individually and integrated through a “little by little” process rather than subjected to an all-or-nothing consolidation.

The potential is substantial. ARCHION is targeting sales of around 280,000 units, with 85% of global production eventually based on integrated platforms that can build multi-energy products. The strategy extends beyond products into production, procurement, development and organizational resources.

The first concrete moves are already visible. In Japan, six plants will become three: Nitta, Koga and Kawasaki. ARCHION has also begun integrating its medium-duty truck platform for Japan, with consolidation to a single platform starting toward the end of 2026.

The significance goes beyond factory rationalization. A common architecture can reduce complexity while creating a larger base over which engineering and development costs can be spread.

The challenge is doing this without turning the brands into mirror images.

If Deppen’s focus is on making the ARCHION structure work, Cusumano is looking at what that structure allows Mitsubishi Fuso to become.

Her arrival at Mitsubishi Fuso adds another dimension to the story. A nearly two-decade veteran of the commercial vehicle industry, she has worked across operations, R&D, and product management in South Africa, Germany, Argentina, the United States and Japan. She also spent time previously at Mitsubishi Fuso’s Global Hybrid Center before returning to the company as CEO.

She is realistic about the world Mitsubishi Fuso must navigate, describing a “new reality,” where decarbonization, digitalization, and autonomy are now joined by geopolitical disruption stretching from supply chains to end customers. Her three-pronged priorities are realizing standalone readiness after the carve-out from Daimler Truck, effective collaboration with Hino Motors, and delivering Mitsubishi Fuso’s own targets. Above them all sits one question: how to build a company that stays resilient for years to come.

The ARCHION structure has expanded Mitsubishi Fuso’s strategic room.

For years, she says, Mitsubishi Fuso was the small child of the Daimler Truck family: “Everyone thought it was cute, but as long as it didn’t bother anyone, it was just left there.” Today, as half of ARCHION, it gets half the attention and opportunity. After only about six months, Mitsubishi Fuso has regained a sharper focus on its core business while retaining access to technology from both Daimler Truck and Toyota ecosystems, considerably widening its solution space.

Her ambition is to use that position to make Mitsubishi Fuso more customer-led.

“I want to develop Mitsubishi Fuso further into a company that doesn’t just produce products, but finds the solutions customers actually need,” she says.

Her strategic pillar is a broader kind of customer focus. Customers know what they need today, but not always what is coming. Cusumano wants Mitsubishi Fuso to anticipate how geopolitics, resources, technology and social changes will reshape transportation over the next decade or two.

Electrification shows why that matters. Adoption has taken far longer than the industry expected because electric trucks require more than just a vehicle, they need charging infrastructure and a viable business case. Cusumano points to the changing relationship between diesel and electricity prices as an example of how quickly the business case can shift. This year in Germany, she notes, diesel prices rose 30% while electricity rose 3%, immediately shifting customer behavior. In Indonesia, the direction of travel is clear from how the country intends to use its coal.

For Mitsubishi Fuso, the implication is clear. Product strategy increasingly has to be connected to the wider operating environment.

Autonomy Will Change More Than the Truck

Autonomous trucking is one of the clearest examples of why commercial vehicle manufacturers cannot treat technology as an isolated product feature.

Cusumano is bullish, calling autonomy one of the technologies she would “definitely put my personal bet on.” She sees the technology as largely there, with legal issues now the main hurdle. The initial opportunity, she believes, lies in hub-to-hub operations. It is a more contained use case and one that can eventually connect with logistics hubs, service stations and wider transportation networks. Preparing for that future therefore involves more than developing an autonomous vehicle. It requires thinking about infrastructure and network design today.

The motivation also varies by geography.

In the United States, it is economics: remove the driver and the margin transforms. In Japan, the conversation is more urgent and hinges around an aging population and persistent driver shortages. This is making autonomy a priority for major fleet customers even before electrification dominates the discussion. It is why autonomy headlines the government’s transport agenda.

Cusumano expects road pilots before widespread deployment. For Japan, she sees specific routes and applications moving toward autonomy around the beginning of the next decade, depending heavily on the pace of legislation.

Deppen is equally focused on preparing for that future, but with a strong emphasis on safety and partnerships.

ARCHION already has FUSO and HINO vehicles participating in autonomous driving trials in Japan, including in government-supported projects, but this remains proof-of-concept territory. Japan’s fog, heavy rain and snow pose tougher conditions than the sunny corridors of California, Texas and New Mexico. So ARCHION’s job is to ensure that the vehicles are technically ready, particularly through redundant chassis systems, while specialist software companies develop the autonomous driving stack.

The commercial vehicle case is also more complicated than robotaxis. A truck driver does far more than steer. The job includes inspecting the vehicle, overseeing loading and unloading, and other activities across the freight process. Removing the driver therefore requires changes throughout the operating model.

The safety threshold is also different. A 30-tonne truck travelling at highway speed presents a far greater risk than a low-speed robotaxi. “If anything goes wrong, you don’t want to be anywhere near it,” says Deppen. Safety first, in other words, and a longer road to break even.

The approach is consequently evolutionary. Build the vehicle capability, develop redundancy, work with specialist partners and gain operating experience before moving toward wider deployment.

The Software-Defined Truck Is Coming

If autonomy changes how trucks operate, software-defined architecture could change how they evolve.

Both executives see this as inevitable, although neither describes a fully software-defined truck as an immediate product.

Cusumano is unequivocal: “If you’re not going in that direction, you’re out of it.” For her, software-defined architecture is less a differentiator than a requirement for remaining competitive. Mitsubishi Fuso and Hino Motors are already studying potential approaches and partners, with a decision expected over the coming year. She hopes to see software-defined trucks in the market by the end of the decade.

Deppen takes a more incremental view.

Fuso is the only manufacturer in Japan able to flash software over the air, already doing so on the Super Great. It is not a full software-defined architecture, Deppen stresses, but it provides practical experience in managing software updates and safeguarding the process for customers.

The larger opportunity comes from combining that experience with ARCHION’s platform strategy.

Historically, light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks have had separate electronic architectures. A mature software-defined vehicle (SDV) architecture could allow software intelligence to be deployed across multiple segments.

Deppen describes this as one of the important opportunities created by a combined platform approach.

In terms of timeline, Deppen believes that initial SDV elements should appear in customer vehicles within the next few years, while a fully developed rollout is more likely toward the end of the decade.

For ARCHION, the technology roadmap therefore mirrors the broader merger strategy: standardize where scale creates value and preserve differentiation where customers care, and build capabilities incrementally rather than attempting to transform everything at once.

A Different Leadership Model for a Different ARCHION

Perhaps the most visible change is in the people now leading the organization.

ARCHION brings together three leaders from outside the traditional mold of Japanese corporate leadership. Deppen, a German, presides over the Group; at Hino Motors, Satyakam Arya is the first Indian to head a major Japanese industrial company; and Cusumano signifies a noteworthy shift in both age and gender representation. German-born and in her 30s, she is the first woman to lead a Japanese company of this stature.

That willingness to challenge convention is perhaps reflective of her deep passion for trail running—navigating steep paths and unfamiliar ground.

She does not see being an outsider simply as a constraint.

“I’m most impactful when I am my authentic self,” she says.

At a recent Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) meeting attended by officials from MLIT and METI, she found it almost more acceptable for her to voice a challenge than for a Japanese colleague to do so. She now sees that as part of her role: speaking up and bringing a different perspective to move the industry forward.

Her view of leadership is similarly pragmatic. The fundamentals, she asserts, are not defined by geography. Leaders need to establish direction, communicate it clearly, mobilize people, and continuously reassess whether the organization is moving in the right direction.

The merger has created a new corporate structure. The next challenge is creating a company capable of using it.

ARCHION is still early in that journey. Factories are being consolidated. Platforms are being aligned. Fuso is redefining its role. Hino has shown a real execution case in autonomous truck driving with its unmanned autonomous load vehicles. Software-defined architectures are moving from concept toward implementation.

But the direction is becoming clearer.

The merger was never simply about combining two commercial truck manufacturers. It was about creating the scale and flexibility to compete in an industry where the definition of a truck is changing. Over the next several years, the success of ARCHION will increasingly be measured by what the two companies can build together that neither could have achieved alone.

Read interview with CEO of HINO here