Dealers placed orders for all 8,000 Ram EcoDiesels available this month.
If the fact that dealers are screaming for the new RamEcoDiesel is any indication, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has struck gold with the introduction of the new Ram EcoDiesel, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has certified will get 28 mpg.
FCA opened the initial order allocation for the 2014 EcoDiesel and got flooded with requests from dealers across the nation, FCA officials said.
Dealers placed more than 8,000 of the diesel trucks, who report a sizeable number of the orders come from customers, who have paid for the truck up front even though they haven’t even taken it for test drive yet.
The 3.0-liter V-6 diesel is rated at 240 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque, and perhaps most importantly: 28 mpg.
“It’s every truck manufacturer’s dream to have this kind of initial order demand for a product. Fuel economy is the No. 1 request of half-ton buyers and the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel delivers without compromising capability,” said Reid Bigland, president and CEO, Ram Truck Brand, Chrysler Group LLC.
“The Ram 1500 is the only half-ton truck available with a diesel, so we see this as incremental business by having the only truck that can offer best-in-class fuel economy of 28 mpg combined with 9,200 pounds of towing capacity.”
GM is scheduled to put a small, 2.8-liter Duramax diesel engine in its new generation of midsize pickup trucks, the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, starting next year.
German carmakers, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, all now sell a growing number of passenger cars model with diesel engines. Volvo, on the other hand, has elected not to offer a diesel powertrain to American customers.
Ford hasn’t committed to diesel powertrains for the U.S. market yet. Raj Nair, Ford vice president of product development, said this week he remains skeptical about whether American consumers are all that interested in diesel power.
“In this country, diesel fuel is still more expensive,” Nair said, noting the gap between the price of gasoline and diesel fuel has actually widened in recent months.
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Diesel fuel is as much as $1 more per gallon than gasoline in some parts of the U.S.
However, the Ram EcoDiesel scored the best highway-cycle test result ever achieved by a full-size, half-ton pickup. It also exceeds the EPA highway rating for the top-ranked small pickup. The breakthrough results mean Ram keeps the half-ton fuel-economy record set last year by the 2013 Ram 1500. Equipped with a 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 gasoline engine, the truck earned 25 mpg highway, a rating that stands for model-year 2014.
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Production of the 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel began earlier this month with a group of specialized trucks in popular configurations. Normal processes place the initial build under quality review to assure every truck meets or exceeds targets. Shipping is expected to start in March, keeping the planned delivery within the first quarter of 2014.
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Bigland said while Ram has reached its first planned order allocation numbers in three days, customers who special order the new truck will have priority in the build. Orders for dealer stocking will be filled once sold customer orders are filled. The next order allocation of Ram 1500 EcoDiesel trucks will open in early March.