GM has announced that the new Duramax diesel engine – a 3.0-liter inline-six – will be manufactured at its engine plant in Flint, Michigan.
Big deal, you say? Well it is for the employees working at the Flint Engine Operations. But it’s also a big deal for the simple reason that it’ll be the only light-duty full-size pickup with a diesel engine actually made in the United States.
With the new diesel option, the Silverado 1500 will go up against similarly powered versions of the Ram 1500 and Ford F-150 (to which an oil-burner was just recently added). As Autoblog points out, the F-150’s new Power Stroke diesel is imported from the UK. And while the new Ram‘s diesel has yet to be detailed, the EcoDiesel in the outgoing model used an engine brought in from Italy.
Nissan offers a diesel V8 in the Titan, built by Cummins in Indiana, but only on the heavy-duty Titan XD. That model competes more directly with the Silverado HD than with the new light-duty Silverado 1500. (Nissan builds both versions at its plant in Canton, Mississippi.)
Between the Equinox, Cruze, Colorado, Express, Silverado 1500, and Silverado HD, Chevy points out that it offers more diesel models (or at least diesels in more segments) than any other brand. The new Duramax engine will be manufactured alongside the 1.4-liter gasoline engines found in the Cruze, Equinox, and Volt.
