Daimler Truck and Volvo Group agree on JV for digital transformation: the advisors

DLA Piper has advised Daimler Truck on a joint venture with the Volvo Group. The joint venture, headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, aims to develop a common software-defined vehicle platform and a dedicated truck operating system. These are intended to form the foundation for future software-defined commercial vehicles. Following the signing of the investment agreement in October last year, the transaction was successfully completed on June 2, 2025.

The software-defined vehicle platform will provide Daimler Truck, the Volvo Group, and potential future customers with the opportunity to offer independent digital vehicle functions for their products. The joint venture will focus on specifying and procuring central, high-performance control units for commercial vehicles that can process large volumes of data. This will decouple software and hardware development cycles, enabling customers to acquire and update digital applications wirelessly, ultimately improving customer efficiency and experience.

A cross-border, multidisciplinary team from DLA Piper offices in the USA, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands worked on the transaction under the joint leadership of Corporate/M&A partners Dr. Tim Arndt (New York) and Dr. Benjamin Parameswaran (Hamburg, PICTURED), with Counsel Sophie von Mandelsloh and Associate Lea Reifers (both Corporate/M&A, Hamburg) as the core team.

Additionally involved were partners Dr. Burkhard Führmeyer (IP, Frankfurt), Sylvia Ebersberger (Commercial, Munich), Dr. Justus Herrlinger (Competition Law, Hamburg), Counsel Eike Bodo Matthes, Senior Associates Marisa Machacek (both IP, Frankfurt), Louisa Arlette Maier-Witt (Competition Law, Hamburg), and Associate Philipp Lutz (Commercial, Munich), as well as from Sweden partners Mathias Berggren (Corporate/M&A), Johan Zetterström (Employment), Senior Associate Mikael Hagström (Corporate/M&A), and Associate Ida Hedlund (Employment; all Stockholm), and from the Netherlands Partner Richard Fens and Legal Director Jacklynn Everduim (both Corporate/M&A, Amsterdam).

The Daimler Truck Legal Team was led by Oliver Haakshorst (Legal M&A Cooperations) and also comprised Keshia-Sue Körper (Legal M&A Cooperations) and Thomas Scherzler (IP). The in-house M&A team for this transaction was headed by Heiko Zimmermann (M&A).