Update from Diesel Progress:
Industry News
Cummins Keeps The Ram
February 3, 2010
A lot of people are probably breathing easier in central Indiana. After months of concern and rumors that Fiat-controlled Chrysler was aiming to put its own diesel engine into the Dodge Ram pickup, Cummins Inc. announced a multiyear extension of its current agreement with Chrysler to supply 6.7 L Cummins Turbo Diesel engines for Ram Heavy Duty pickups and Chassis Cab trucks. Details on the length of the extension and financial information was not provided.
Cummins has produced over 1.7 million Cummins Turbo Diesel engines for Dodge Ram Heavy Duty trucks since 1989. More than 80% of Ram Heavy Duty truck customers purchase their truck with the Cummins Turbo Diesel, Cummins said.
Almost since it began supplying diesel engines for the Ram, there have been near-constant rumors and reports that Cummins was about to lose the business. The change in Dodge’s corporate status that put Fiat in control only stoked those rumors, especially since Fiat also builds a 6.7 L platform.
Ironically, that engine was one of the fruits of the European Engine Alliance (EEA), a venture between Cummins and Fiat subsidiaries. That alliance ended in 2008, in part because of a strategy by Fiat to have its own Fiat Powertrain Technologies (FPT) subsidiary be the primary engine supplier to Fiat companies.
But while the reports and rumors ran hot and heavy that Fiat was going to supply its own engines for the Ram, there were other signs that pointed to the contrary. As far back as October, Cummins began recalling production employees that had been laid off or transferred to other Cummins facilities over the past year back to the Cummins MidRange Engine Plant in Walesboro, Ind., where Cummins builds the Ram Turbo Diesel.
Perhaps more significantly, Dodge began an advertising push for Ram Heavy Duty models that specifically promoted the truck’s Cummins engine. Dodge gave Cummins a higher profile than it had in recent memory, which would have been odd had the company seriously planned on replacing it with a Fiat diesel any time soon.
"Cummins and Chrysler have a long and important history together," said Dave Crompton, vice president and general manager, MidRange Engine Business at Cummins. "The Chrysler business continues to be a key part of our MidRange engine business."