When will
the light duty V8 diesel show up? Mr. White says, “We’ll
have one about the same time as everyone else.” He’s also
mum on who GM will source the diesel from - whether it will be Isuzu,
who supplies the current Duramax for use in the 2500 and 3500 class Silverado
and Sierra, or from another supplier.
Mr. White
did however tell PickupTruck.com about other GMT900 power and drivetrain
news. If diesel prices rise too much and heavy duty buyers start to
demand gas engine choices beyond the current 6.0-liter Vortec V8, don’t
expect the big block 8.1-liter Vortec V8, discontinued this year, to
return to the HD lineup. “We’d look at something other than
the 8.1,” says Mr. White.
There’s no plan for GM to offer a dual mode hybrid HD pickup to
help obtain improved fuel economy in the 2500 and 3500 models. Only a
light duty hybrid will go on sale, by the end of calendar year 2008.
But some hybrid technology will still trickle out to trucks with traditional
internal combustion powertrains.
“We’re
smoking everyone pretty good today in fuel economy,” says Mr.
White. “From
start to finish with the 800s we picked up 2 miles per gallon, and we
picked up another two when we launched the 900s. We’re not going
to stop. We’re going to continue to improve fuel economy every
year for the life of the truck. We’ve got lots of stuff still coming
and we’re going to show that performance and fuel economy don’t
have to be mutually exclusive,” he says.
That future “stuff” includes
more efficient oil pumps, fuel pumps, and replacing today’s
hydraulic-based power steering systems with electrically powered steering
(EPS) donated from the dual mode hybrid.
Conventional
hydraulic power steering consumes more energy than electromechanical
steering because the hydraulics require a constantly running pump,
regardless of whether the vehicle is turning or moving in a straight
line. Belt driven EPS, in contrast, requires no pump, hoses or fluid.
Its power is applied directly to the steering system as needed to help
the driver turn – resulting
in about 10% of the energy consumption of a conventional steering system,
which helps boost fuel economy. Up until recently EPS could only be
used on small vehicles because the standard 12-volt power system found
in most cars and trucks couldn’t power a big enough
motor to assist the steering effort required turning large automobiles.
But Mr. White says, “We’ve got some interesting technologies
to get EPS costs way, way down to where you could put it across the board.” Could
this mean we’ll see a 42-volt power system on all future trucks
too, not just the two mode hybrid? We’ll have to wait and see.
In a change
from previous reports about the timeline for six-speed transmissions
to start showing up in GM’s half-tons, other than GMC’s Sierra
Denali, Mr. White says, “We’ll probably roll out the six-speed
earlier than 2009. You’ll see them in one model and then another.”
And as six-speed
gearboxes deploy, the 367-horsepower / 375 lb-ft 6.0-liter Vortec Max
V8 will be retired and replaced with the 403-hp / 417 lb-ft 6.2-liter
Vortec V8 across the entire light duty lineup. Today it’s
only found in the Sierra
Denali. The 6.2 is the most powerful naturally
aspirated V8 currently available in the half-ton segment.
