jeepin.jason

Cummins Inc. announced in a press release today that they will be starting a new line of light-duty diesel engines. The new engines wil be produced in their Columbus, IN, plant and preperation for the new line is planned to start mid next year with production starting by 2010.

The press release states that DaimlerChrylser will be the main customer for the new line of engines, which will be intended for vehicles with a GVWR “below 8,500 pounds”. That’s not being very specific though since the only Dodge vehicles with a GVWR over 8,500 pounds are the Ram 2500/3500 Heavy-Duty trucks and the Dodge Sprinter (which apparently already has a 2.7L CDI turbodiesel motor available).

Considering that DCX is putting their new Mercedes-sourced 3.0L BLUETEC CRD motors into the 2007 Jeep Grand Cheroke and 2007 Jeep Commander it seems unlikely to me that these vehicles would get the light-duty Cummins after only 3 years with the Benz motor, but the US-spec 2.8L CRD Jeep Liberty was only produced for 2 years, so anything can happen I guess.

The 2007 Jeep Wrangler JK has an at-best GVWR of only about 5,340 pounds for a Rubicon Unlimited (DCX hasn’t explicitly stated the GVWR of the new JK Wranglers yet), which is fairly light compared to the 6,400# GVWR of the Commander, the 6,700# GVWR of the Durnago/Aspen, and the 6,800# GVWR of the Ram 1500. So as much as I, and probably you, and tons of other Jeep fans, would love to see a diesel Wrangler, I think we’ll only see the light-duty Cummins motors in the Ram 1500 and the Durango/Aspen. I sure hope I’m wrong though.

You can read the complete Cummins press release here.