Fiat Buys VM Motori From GM

by TTAC Staff

Published: October 29th, 2013

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.

#Diesel #Fiat #GeneralMotors #VmMotori

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Silvy_nonsense on Oct 29, 2013

The FIAT-based trucks are going to be sold in the U.S. under a new brand called "Small Goat".

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- Silvy_nonsense on Oct 29, 2013
  
  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".
  
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RHD on Oct 30, 2013

Coming soon: a new Ram diesel pickup, powered by Chevrolet!

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- Les on Oct 30, 2013
  
  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.
  
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Johannes Dutch on Oct 30, 2013

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.

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Les on Oct 30, 2013

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.

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- Les on Oct 30, 2013
  
  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.
  
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- Les on Oct 30, 2013
  
  @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'.
  
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- Big Al from Oz on Oct 30, 2013
  
  @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.
  
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- Les on Oct 30, 2013
  
  @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.
  
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