2014 Ram 1500 Ecodiesel V6

Being practical sorts, full-size-pickup owners don’t suffer fools or eco-weenies gladly. But as with the mainstreaming of organic foods and energy-conserving light bulbs and appliances, the prefix “eco” has slowly crept into the pickup-truck vernacular.

Ford kicked things off a few years back with its gas-burningEcoBoost V-6 F-150. Some industry stalwarts dismissed the fancy-pants turbocharged trucks and then got quiet as the blue oval brand grabbed great handfuls of market share, with as many as 40 percent of F-150 buyers choosing the blown V-6 over a traditional V-8. Earlier this summer, GM introduced its new-generation full-size pickups, with a freshly engineered lineup of direct-injected, variable-displacement V-6 and V-8 engines dubbed Ecotec3. Now the battle for the wallets of mileage-minded haulers is joined by Chrysler, which is introducing the industry’s first small-displacement, light-duty-pickup turbo-diesel engine. It’s being marketed as—wait for it—the EcoDiesel.

A Shared Cadillac and Ram Engine? It Could Have Happened

The 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V-6 comes to these shores courtesy of VM Motori, a longtime Italian marine-diesel-engine builder and former affiliate of Fiat. Ownership is now, interestingly enough, split 50/50 between Chrysler/Fiat and General Motors. Yes, GM. Industry sources tell us that a version of the EcoDiesel was originally being developed for use in the Cadillac CTS, which makes sense, as any company that wants its luxury sedans to be taken seriously in Europe needs to offer an oil burner. The Caddy version bit the dust in GM’s 2009 march to bankruptcy, but today you can buy a Jeep Grand Cherokee with the engine. The Ram version driven here will be on offer by the end of the year, at an estimated $4000 upcharge over the base 3.6-liter Pentastar gas V-6 (or $2850 more than the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 option).

Chrysler sees its 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V-6 as fulfilling an unmet demand in the full-size-pickup segment and as a complement to its V-6 and V-8 gas engines and the HD trucks’ 6.7-liter Cummins turbo-diesel. Although final EPA estimates aren’t available, Chrysler did announce that it expects highway fuel economy in the high 20s. We have every reason to believe that’s reasonable, as the several-hundred-pounds-lighter Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel is already in production and carries official EPA numbers of 21 mpg city and 28 highway.

Driving Impressions, We Has Them

As with every other turbo-diesel on the planet, the EcoDiesel V-6’s calling card is torque, and lots of it—in this case 420 lb-ft, available from 2000 rpm. We drove on- and off-road north of Los Angeles in a well-equipped (estimated price: $39,940) Ram 1500 rear-wheel-drive crew cab with mid-level Lone Star trim. The truck likely tipped the scales just shy of 6000 pounds, yet the winsome combination of a wide-ratio eight-speed automatic transmission and generous low- and midrange grunt delivered ample acceleration and flexibility.

Underhood, the variable-vane turbocharger does a good job of taming low-speed turbo lag. Even at part throttle, it was easy to make time on back roads or jockey for slots in the ebb and flow of suburban traffic. Chrysler says the 3.0 EcoDiesel engine weighs only 50 more pounds than the Hemi V-8, which is light for a diesel. Keeping extra pounds out of the nose contributes to the EcoDiesel’s feeling of agility, something the big-dog Cummins diesel in heavy-duty Rams can’t claim. Even though the 6.7-liter Cummins in HD Rams offers a sick 30,000 pounds of towing muscle, the EcoDiesel V-6 is still rated for a healthy 9200 pounds.

And there it is. The 3.0-liter EcoDiesel for now has the half-ton diesel market to itself, although Nissan has confirmed it will enter the fray with its next-gen Titan. (GM and Ford are content to sit it out, although the General had an engine basically ready to go before bankruptcy canceled the program.) Such trucks represent a new full-size-pickup sweet spot that combines respectable performance, hauling ability, and fuel economy barely attainable in smaller trucks just a few years ago. 

2016 Toyota Tundra and Cummins Diesel Team Up

WardsAuto reports that the next generation 2016 Toyota Tundra pickup will receive the Cummins 5.0L V8 turbodiesel for 2016, the same engine that will be powering the next Nissan Titan pickup, due for 2015. While Toyota had been working on a diesel engine with Hino, Toyota’s heavy-truck division, the economic crash of 2008 shelved the plans. With new found interest in light diesels and the new Ram EcoDiesel leading the way with favorable reviews and excellent fuel economy, Toyota looks to jump quickly into the light diesel truck market.

The new Cummins 5.0L V8 turbodiesel is confirmed to produce 300 hp and 500 ft lb of torque in the Titan, so we can expect similar numbers for the Toyota. Not only does this engine produce more torque than any gas motor in a light duty pickup, but even tops the Ram EcoDiesel’s 420 ft lb, making it the most powerful torquiest engine offered in any light duty pickup. This is a a strong move for Toyota and Nissan, possibly helping to bridge the gap between their half-ton pickups and Ford, GM and Ram’s heavier duty 3/4-ton pickups; an area where neither manufacturer currently offer a product.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HYBRID VEHICLES

ADVANTAGES OF A HYBRID VEHICLE

HOW DO CVT TRANSMISSIONS WORK?

FUEL ECONOMY

Three Things to Examine in Determining the Cause of Lower Gas Mileage

The quick answer is – it could be several causes. The first things to examine and rule out are the simple issues:

• Tire Inflation – this may seem simplistic and trivial but significant tire under-inflation can negatively impact your fuel economy.
• Tune-up Frequency – let’s say you were meticulous with your hybrid’s maintenance early on in your ownership but have been falling behind on the maintenance schedule lately – an out-of-tune vehicle won’t be able to deliver the fuel economy that a tuned vehicle will.
• Changing driving habits or conditions - maybe you changed jobs and your commute is longer and you’ve altered how you drive to compensate. Or you moved to another state and you’re dealing with elevation changes that you never encountered before. Subtle changes like these can impact your hybrid’s fuel performance.

HOW LONG DO HYBRID BATTERIES LAST?

Honda vs Toyota Hybrid Batteries

With the way the Honda system is configured, the vehicle can be driven with a very, very weak battery.  Typically what happens is that a battery problem occurs and a warning light is triggered (the dreaded IMA light as it’s officially known).  The vehicle begins to utilize the battery less and less but for a wide variety of reasons, the customer keeps driving the vehicle for an extended period of time. Sometimes the Honda owner doesn’t feel compelled to get it checked right away. Or, they did take it in for an assessment and the dealer recommends a battery replacement and the high cost to do so prohibited them from replacing it. The longer the Honda battery operates in that diminished state, the more difficult it is to condition it back to life.

The experience our dealers are having with Toyotas is a little different due to the way the Toyota hybrid system is configured. If the battery starts to have problems, it’s likely that the owner won’t be able to drive the car – essentially, the battery is dead.This prevents the battery from reaching such a diminished state that either major components need replacement to restore it – or restoration is not an option at all.

Many Honda hybrids arrive at dealers’ shops and the batteries are in such a diminished state that baseline performance readings are not even possible.  A battery in this condition will likely need one or two charging cycles just to get current condition readings.  And due to the fact that the battery has reached this diminished state, more components need to be replaced if a successful restoration is to occur.

Our dealers for The Hybrid Shop are finding it easier to get an initial performance reading on the Toyotas, again, primarily due to the power system configuration.  With that initial reading in hand, and more often than not, a single charge cycle will provide an idea of how quickly the battery will recover.

Keep in mind that even within each brand, differences in driving habits, driving conditions and maintenance history will have an impact on hybrid battery recovery potential. If you are either a Honda or Toyota hybrid owner and are experiencing fuel economy or performance issues, your battery may be a significant contributing factor.