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Fiat is now the proud owner of VM Motori after acquiring the remaining 50 percent of the diesel engine maker from General Motors for $47.1 million.
The first half of VM Motori was purchased by Fiat in 2010, with GM exercising a put option to purchase the remaining half. VM Motori now supplies diesel engines for the forthcoming Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 EcoDiesel – an engine originally developed for the European Cadillac CTS.
Shouldn’t it be a “call option”? A put option allows you to sell stock, not buy it.
Yeah that sentence is confusing. Maybe the writer meant GM exercised its Put option to sell the remaining half to Fiat.
Or maybe you’re right, maybe Fiat has a contractual Call option to buy the rest of VM.
Either way, it probably needs a little editing for clarity.
The article is poorly written
GM exercised a put option to require Fiat to buy the shares.
I think I’m turning to stone just looking at that thing.
Reminds you of a early emissions strangled engine wrapped in vaccum lines no?
If it makes you feel any better it looks like almost all of those lines on top are fuel supply and returns.
2 high pressure lines (chromed for display) coming from the v-twin piston pump (mounted on the front, laying over on its side) going to the two common rails tucked into the valley of the Vee.
And low pressure return lines (black hose) feeding back from the injectors to the high pressure pump.
Turbo is hidden from view in the rear.
High pressure loop EGR cooler is on the left side of picture, also chromed for display (right hand side from engine POV). EGR coolers require water flow, so there’s some more large lines for that. Mounted in the front of the cooler is a glossy black valve controlling how much EGR flows into the center mount intake manifold.
Hanging off on the right hand side of the picture what appears to me to be a crankcase ventilation filter/oil separator.
Add a DOC/DPF/SCR/AMOX system into the exhaust and this thing will be capable of meeting any of the most strict emissions regulations that currently exist while delivering pretty good fuel economy, good power, and very fast engine response (assuming an engine development team that knows what they are doing).
If you don’t like clean emissions tech, then contact your congress critter to repeal or amend the clean air act.
Thanks for the explanations. One other thing – I don’t see much of a provision to mount any accessories. Is there a built-in alternator somewhere or something?
Larger pictures of that engine here : http://www.allpar.com/mopar/V6/VM-RA-diesel.html
Call me a killjoy, but I like clean air. My vehicles go faster than I am qualified to drive them, they get better fuel economy than ever before, and they last longer than ever before with less maintenance. I don’t think the Clean Air Act is a problem.
Anyone who has a problem with the Clean Air Act needs to spend some time in Shanghai. We are lucky to live in countries that have learned the hard way what happens when we all just run amok.
Last year I purchased a a British classic sports car as a toy. It’s almost 30 years old .
It’s fun but even when it’s perfectly tuned the exhaust fumes are pretty stinky. The fuel and crankcase vent system are not sealed so there are always some residual fuel or oil smell.It maybe gets 30mpg which considering it’s only 70bhp and under 2000lbs is pretty pathetic.
Even though my commute is short, no way could I daily drive it.Fiddling with choke etc.I drive it maybe 1000 miles a year, it makes you realize how far cars have come.
Nice straw man take down. Very effective.
Anyone who thinks people with a problem with the Clean Air Act are whining over nothing needs to spend some time in Atoka County Oklahoma, where the skies are as clear now as they were in 1975, which were as clear then as they were in 1875; Then go and see if you can find someone to service your modern EPA-compliant diesel in a reasonable time-frame, at a reasonable price, within a reasonable distance from your home.
..pick ONE.
The FIAT-based trucks are going to be sold in the U.S. under a new brand called “Small Goat”.
Iveco trucks aren’t FIAT based any more than Freightliners are Mercedes based. You do understand that the Iveco New Stralis Hi-Way class 8 tractor isn’t based upon the FIAT Panda, right?
Even so, the new brand is still called “Small Goat”.
Coming soon: a new Ram diesel pickup, powered by Chevrolet!
I’ve been to the Cummins website and they Do produce road-going diesels in the displacement ranges that could serve the same niche as the V.M. Motori engines, for the European market. That Cummins is breaking from it’s comfort-zone of inline-configuration powerplants to build a V-8 for Nissan doesn’t make it sound like they’d put up much of a fuss if asked to convert those already-existent engines to US-spec.
The Fiat diesel engines for anything bigger than a car, like Iveco and CNH, are FPT engines. (Fiat Powertrain Technologies)
http://www.fptindustrial.com/en-UK/Pages/HomePage.aspx
VM Motori diesel engines are in cars, Jeeps and in the Ram 1500.
Their 3.0 V6 for example is in the Lancia Thema (a rebadged Chrysler 300C), the Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Ram 1500 and the new Maserati Ghibli.
This greatly concerns me.. as a Diesel powerplant supplier, Fiat is in direct competition with Cummins, a company that Chrysler has spent Decades turning into a household name with their use of Cummins engines in their Diesel powered Ram trucks and it has paid-off in spades. Around here, people who couldn’t tell you the names used by Ford or Chevrolet for their in-house Diesels still covet the Cummins.
Oh, this conflict of interest is going to be sooo awkward.
That’s what I’m afraid of, and would be a BIG Mistake.
Sergio is already getting flack from MOPAR purists that he ‘doesn’t Get the company he bought’, if there’s any truth to that I could see him doing just such a thing.. but it would still be a mistake.
Chrysler spent decades marketing the Cummins name, people who know Diesels like and trust Cummins.. people who DON’T know diesels like and trust Cummins. Now, Sergio has that kind of brand cache For Free essentially, and is poised to cast it aside because vertical supply-chains look prettier on spreadsheets.
@RoberRyan
Yes, I know. That’s why I know about the conflict of interest.
I also know that RAM’s primary market is still the United States, and no way will the American Market stand for ditching ‘Cummins Dependability’ for ‘Fix-It Again Tony’.
@Les
There is no conflict of interest. Fiat more or less own Ram. Why would you use a product from an outside business?
Iveco make a 5.7 litre inline 6 diesel that could be slotted into HDs.
Chrysler didn’t make Cummins what they are. Cummins diesels kept HD Ram pickups alive.
@RobertRyan
It won’t end well. There’s still a sizeable portion of the market that buys RAM trucks exclusively for the Cummins engine, they’re likely to buy Nissans soon.
@Big Al from Oz
The conflict of interest is that Fiat wants to promote it’s own engines but they have product from Chrysler that moves largely from using a competitor’s engines.
And Chrysler DID make Cummins a household name, taking them from a pure commercial-grade engine provider to a name that was on almost everybody’s lips that was interested in consumer-grade diesel engines.. this in turn sustained the Ram HD trucks throughout the 90s and 00’s to today.
At least in the US. I don’t know so much outside the market about what Cummins/Fiat mean for commercial diesel save that they do compete in the same market, but if Sergio throws Cummins under the bus to further integrate his supply lines on the back of Fiat being a trusted commercial diesel producer abroad the US market will take that as a sign that Sergio is abandoning them.