| | Merger of Daimler and Benz |
Benz & Cie. and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft entered a community of interests in 1924 with joint sales of the Mercedes and Benz brands. This was followed by a merger into Daimler-Benz AG in 1926. The two pioneering companies in the automotive industry, until then fierce competitors, now had to be joined under one roof. It was a question of streamlining product ranges and restructuring the plants. Within the new company, Benz was the dominating partner where commercial vehicles were concerned. Between 1919 and 1926, Benz had produced exactly 20,930 trucks compared with 13,420 on Daimler's books. Where the diesel engine was concerned, Benz's prechamber principle was equally superior. Logically, the Benz plant in Gaggenau became the truck plant of the merged company. The Daimler plant in Berlin-Marienfelde was converted into a repair and replacement part centre and produced trucks – purpose-built offroad vehicles with all-wheel drive – for only a short period during the thirties.
The first truck range of Daimler-Benz, presented at the 1927 "International Motor Show for Trucks and Special Vehicles" in Cologne, consisted of three model series with payload capacity ratings between 1.5 and 5.0 tonnes. Their designations:
Mercedes-Benz L1 through to L 5, N 1 and N 2. The compact L1 had a gross weight of 3.5 tonnes and a four-cylinder petrol engine which developed 45 hp from a 3.7 litre displacement. The heavy-duty L 5 had a gross weight of approx. ten tonnes and was powered by an 8.1 litre four-cylinder petrol engine with 70 hp. The L 5 with OM 5 diesel engine – the world's first six-cylinder diesel engine for vehicles – caused quite a sensation. Models N 1 and N 2 were low-frame chassis. This range was continually extended by Daimler-Benz in the years to come.
Technical progress advanced rapidly. In the subsequent years, the company changed over to six-cylinder petrol engines with displacement between 3.9 and 7.8 litres, while output rose to 110 hp. The petrol engine still predominated and the diesel engine played a subordinate role – even the OM 5 six-cylinder unit with its displacement of 8.6 litres and output ratings of initially 70, then 85 and 95 hp. The acronym OM stood for 'oil engine', i.e. diesel engine, and designates all diesel engines in Mercedes-Benz vehicles to this day. It was only in the heavy-duty N 56 three-axle truck with a payload capacity of 8.5 tonnes that this engine was installed in larger numbers. But times were to change –large-scale production of injection pumps, until then produced in-house, was taken up by Bosch.
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