By Boris Ladwig, The Republic
bladwig@therepublic.com
The Dodge Ram pickup truck will feature, after 2009, Cummins Inc.'s new light-duty diesel engine, to be produced at Columbus Engine Plant in downtown Columbus.
The new LDD engine, for which neither Cummins nor Chrysler has revealed many details, will come as an option for the Dodge Ram 1500.
The truck's 2500 and 3500 models are - and will be - available with a bigger Cummins engine, the 6.7-liter produced exclusively at the Columbus Midrange Engine Plant near Walesboro.
Cummins and Chrysler expect that the smaller-engine option will entice new customers to buy the Ram truck - rather than reducing sales of the more powerful versions.
Though Cummins spokesman Mark Land acknowledged the possibility of some customer overlap, Cummins expects to attract mostly new buyers.
The smaller engine likely will attract more of the casual truck driver - rather than someone who needs the power and torque of the bigger engine to pull a boat or horse trailer, Land said.
"It's a different segment," agreed Nick Cappa, manager of advanced technology communications for Chrysler.
The LDD Ram will be a half-ton pickup truck with greater towing capacity and better fuel economy, Cappa said.
The Ram 1500 has a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of about 6,600 pounds, while the 2500 series adds about 2,000 pounds, and the 3500 another 2,500 pounds.
Other uses
Cummins has not disclosed any technical details on the LDD engine.
Chrysler has said that the LDD engine "will provide a dramatic increase in low-end torque, up to a 25-percent improvement in fuel efficiency and a 20-percent reduction in carbon dioxide (C02) emissions when compared to an equivalent gasoline engine."
When Cummins announced the product in late 2006, it said it would invest $250 million, create 600 to 800 jobs no later than 2010 and that the engine would be used in light trucks and sport utility vehicles weighing less than 8,500 pounds.
Cummins has not announced further customers, and a recently announced deal with Nissan does not seem to fit: The two unspecified engines Cummins will produce to enable Nissan to enter the North American light commercial vehicle market by 2010 will power vehicles below 8 tons, or 16,000 pounds.
That means the Nissan vehicles likely will weigh more than even the Ram 3500: Too much for a light-duty diesel - though a midrange engine would work, which could boost production at CMEP - or in North Carolina, where Cummins also makes B-series engines.
Land said Cummins and Nissan have not yet determined which engines they will use.
Cummins Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tim Solso said last year that the company expects to build about 150,000 engines a year at Plant 1, though if the product takes off, production could double.
The midrange plant annually ships to Chrysler about 150,000 6.7-liter engines, which power more than 80 percent of Ram 2500 and 3500 series trucks - although rising fuel prices have significantly lowered demand this year and resulted in voluntary layoffs and reassignments.
Despite the weak North American auto market, Cummins has not publicly changed its production projections for the LDD engine, partially because, Land said, the market could look significantly different in two years.
Nissan Titan
Car and Driver speculated this month that the next Nissan Titan could come with Cummins engines due to a Nissan/Chrysler agreement.
The Titan, whose curb weight is between the Ram 1500 and 2500 - and below the 8,500-pound target weight of the LDD engine - comes only with a 5.6-liter V8 gasoline engine.
Cummins said it would not speculate on what the Chrysler-Nissan dealership means.
In another sign of Chrysler's strategy to offer customers more powertrain options, the Cummins LDD engine also will have to compete with a 5.7-liter HEMI Hybrid V-8.