Automotive
News reported on Monday March 06, 2000 that DaimlerChrysler
will power the 2002 Dodge
Ram with its own Mercedes-Benz Diesel engine but Cummins Engines
has issued a news release stating otherwise.
Automotive
News quoted both Mercedes spokesperson Enrico Mueller and an unnamed
manager in Dodge's Powertrain Development Group as stating the
change from the current Cummins diesel to a Mercedes diesel would
begin in the next generation Ram and most likely be of common-rail
design - possibly the MBE-906 model. The 6.4L six cylinder MBE-906
is larger than the current 5.9L I6 Cummins used in the Ram.
Switching
to a Mercedes-Benz diesel could possibly save DaimlerChrysler
millions of dollars in costs but cost Cummins around 20% of its
total annual revenues. Cummins stock price has plummeted to a
52-week low of around 32 on the news. Cummins has had a close
relationship with Dodge
since 1989.
In response
to this news Cummins Engines issued a statement from Tim Solso,
its chairman and chief executive. "I spoke to (DaimlerChrysler
president) Jim Holden last night in Auburn Hills, who confirmed
that Cummins would remain the diesel engine option in its Dodge
Ram pickup truck". And in the last few days David Elshoff,
a DaimlerChrysler spokesperson, also confirmed that Cummins had
been told it will remain the diesel engine supplier for the trucks.
A Mercedes engine would be used only if DaimlerChrysler were to
decide to build a medium-duty truck, which is larger than the
light-duty Ram pickup, the spokesman.
So which
will it be? We are speculating that both the Mercedes and Cummins
engines will be used in the next generation Dodge Ram.
