Ram Lays Claim For Now To Light Duty Towing Title With New EcoDiesel

Barely a month after reaching an $800 million settlement over allegations that it cheated on a diesel emissions in a similar way to Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler is getting ready to jump back into the diesel market. This fall, the 2020 Ram 1500 will again be offered with a 3.0-liter diesel V6 that is claimed to have more torque and towing capability than competitors from Ford and General Motors. For the first time, the FCA EcoDiesel V6 will also be offered on all variants of the Ram 1500 including the off-road tuned Rebel.

While it retains the same 3.0-liter 6-degree V6 configuration as earlier iterations of this engine, much of the details have been revamped to make the engine more powerful and efficient. The EcoDiesel gets an eight-percent bump to 260-hp and 14 percent more torque raising it to 480 lb-ft at just 1,600 rpm besting the 440 lb-ft of Ford’s engine and the 460 lb-ft on offer from the new inline-six GM diesel. The GM engine does have a power advantage, peaking at 277-hp.

With the stronger frame of the new generation Rams, FCA’s trucks can now tow up to 12,560-lbs. That beats the 11,400-lb capability of the F-150 diesel although now that the numbers are out, the engineers in Dearborn are no doubt going over everything to see if that can eak out another 1,200-lbs. Gas-powered EcoBoost F-150s can tow as much 13,500-lbs but fuel economy is more significantly degraded than with a diesel. GM hasn’t yet released tow ratings for the Silverado diesel but they will also be aiming to beat the Ram numbers, even if only by 50-100-lbs, just so they can claim the all-important bragging rights.

Among the improvements to the updated V6 are the addition of water cooling to the variable geometry turbocharger which is claimed to improve transient response but should also improve durability. Low pressure exhaust gas recirculation is added to help manage combustion temperatures and emissions. The compression ratio gets a bump from 16,0 to 16.5:1 to further aid torque. The common rail fuel injection stays at 2,000-bar but the injectors have been redesigned to provide optimized delivery in the reshaped combustion chamber.

Trucks using the redesigned diesel will go on sale in the fourth quarter of 2020 and pricing and fuel economy numbers will be announced closer to that time. All variants of the current generation pickup including the Rebel will be available with the diesel. The previous generation truck that is still in production as the Ram 1500 Classic continues to be offered with the older second-generation diesel engine.