GM Delays New 25 MPG Diesel Engine for Silverado and Sierra
General Motors has announced that it is putting a hold on a plan to bring a new 4.5-liter V8 diesel engine to market. The new engine would have been used in the light-duty Silverado and Sierra pickup trucks and estimates have it rated at anywhere from the mid-20s to the high-20s in miles per gallon. This would even be a significant improvement over GM’s current Silverado and Sierra hybrids, which get 21 mpg city and 22 highway.
The move is just one of many tough choices GM has had to make to cut costs ahead of a U.S. government decision to see if the struggling automaker will get an additional $16.6 billion in bailout funds.
What makes this pill even harder to swallow is that the new engine is just a year away from being ready for production – which would take place at GM’s Tonawanda, N.Y. plant.
As for the engine itself, it has a unique cylinder head design that eliminates intake and exhaust manifolds. The lightweight block also has “advanced castings” for the crankshaft-bearing journals and oil system.
GM secured several new patents in the design of the 4.5-liter diesel engine and it apparently is both as smooth and as quiet as a gasoline engine. With most of the ground-work already complete, General Motors has stated that it would be willing to work with another company on bringing the new diesel V8 to market if there were any reasonable offers.
[Source: AutoNews]
With AutoGuide from its launch, Colum previously acted as Editor-in-Chief of Modified Luxury & Exotics magazine where he became a certifiable car snob driving supercars like the Koenigsegg CCX and racing down the autobahn in anything over 500 hp. He has won numerous automotive journalism awards including the Best Video Journalism Award in 2014 and 2015 from the Automotive Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Colum founded Geared Content Studios, VerticalScope's in-house branded content division and works to find ways to integrate brands organically into content.
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This kind of backwards thinking is what got GM into trouble in first place. Delaying a ground breaking engine with great fuel mileage? That sounds like a great way to let the competition catch up and beat you to market. I'm sure glad us taxpayers are paying some executive millions to make these great decisions.
Imagine a SUV like the Yukon or Traverse that gets 30 mpg hwy. GM would turn the other "SUV" automakers into car makers within a year. What about a minivan with a V-6 that gets 35 mpg like the ones in Europe? I'd buy one of each to go with my fleet of Diesel Savanna's I have at work. No wonder they went bankrupt. They went to the trouble and expense of designing, and testing it and now they simply won't manufacturer it or put it in a vehicle.