2024 Ram 3500 Limited on 2040-cars

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Ram, Jeep redesigns on hold, Alfa Romeo models may come sooner

Last summer, FCA outlined an ambitious five-year plan that sketched out the company's product intentions for each of its brands through the end of 2018. However, even the best strategies sometimes need tweaking. According to Reuters after speaking with unnamed people at auto suppliers, FCA is now possibly delaying at least a dozen projects in North America for a variety of reasons. From vehicle to vehicle, these postponements allegedly last anywhere from just a few months to over a year. The sources from the suppliers claim that in some cases these tweaks are for engineering and design changes. The next-gen Ram 1500 reportedly has among the shorter delays and is being pushed from mid-2017 to November 2017, according to Reuters. Also, the much-discussed future Jeep Wrangler is allegedly moving a little later to July 2017. Among the vehicles purportedly seeing longer delays, the next-gen Grand Cherokee could get pushed back about a year to 2018. That then forces the launch of the three-row, luxury Grand Wagoneer to be even further away. Jeep's upcoming C-segment CUV and the all-new Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, and Challenger might also see postponements. The one brand allegedly seeing an accelerated plan is Alfa Romeo. Without going into detail, the sources from these suppliers claim that the Italian automaker is getting even more vehicles for its lineup and could get them even faster than planned. "Those plans need to be flexible and fluid, with the potential to add some vehicles, pull some forward and extend the life cycle of others," FCA said to Reuters about all of these allegations. "We look at these programs on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis." Investment in the auto industry has been a major topic for FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne as of late. He believes consolidation is necessary so that companies aren't burning money on the same projects. Related Video: News Source: ReutersImage Credit: Bill Pugliano / Getty Images Plants/Manufacturing Alfa Romeo Chrysler Dodge Fiat Jeep RAM Sergio Marchionne FCA fca us

Chrysler 3.0L EcoDiesel V6: Autoblog Technology of the Year finalist

Offering a diesel engine in an American pickup is anything but new - Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all offer excellent and almost impossibly powerful oil-burning engines in their various fullsize trucks. What is new and novel about the 3.0L EcoDiesel, though, is its size, and the variety of vehicles that use it. It's the smallest engine, as far as displacement is concerned, currently offered in a large truck in the US, and, for 2014 and 2015, it is available in the Ram 1500 and the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Though it may be small, it's got muscle. While 240 horsepower isn't particularly impressive these days, the engine's 420 pound-feet of torque more than makes up for that. The torque rating is even greater force than even the big 5.7-liter Hemi can muster. Chrysler's well-regarded eight-speed automatic transmission makes the most of all that bull-headed pulling power in both the Ram and Grand Cherokee. Chrysler claims the Ram EcoDiesel 1500 can tow as much as 9,200 pounds when properly equipped, which makes it "90-percent of the Hemi with a night and day difference in fuel economy."
Make no mistake; it's that promise of a sizable fuel economy improvement that many long-haul truckers will be most interested in. In the Ram 1500 that we tested for our Tech of the Year competition, the diesel engine costs $2,850 more than the gas-fed V8, and Ram estimates that EcoDiesel buyers will pay off their investment when compared to the Hemi engine in less than three years, which is considerably less time than the 4.5 or so years the average buyer will keep his or her fullsize pickup. The more you drive, the more you'll save, and the math proves equally as effective in the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Fiat Chrysler, Waymo expand partnership for Level 4 self-driving

Fiat Chrysler and Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet Co., are expanding their partnership in an ambitious plan to develop fully autonomous commercial delivery vehicles and integrate Level 4 autonomous technology across the FCA fleet, the two companies said Wednesday. The agreement makes FCA (soon to be dubbed Stellantis when the PSA merger is complete) the exclusive partner for Waymo to develop and test self-driving Class 1-3 light commercial delivery vehicles. Initial efforts will focus on integrating the Waymo Driver system into the Ram ProMaster cargo van for commercial fleets, including Waymo Via, which have seen demand for home delivery services mushroom during the coronavirus pandemic. Conversely, FCA has tapped Waymo as its exclusive supplier for Level 4 self-driving technology across its vehicle fleet, opening up possibilities for ride-hailing and personal-use vehicles. An FCA spokesman would not commit to any timelines for integrating Waymo’s self-driving technology into the ProMaster or other brands or models. The Society of Automotive Engineers defines Level 4 systems as fully automated driving, though a human driver can manually override and take control of the wheel. There are currently no Level 4 autonomous vehicles offered to customers, and most experts believe the technology still faces many obstacles to broad adoption and regulatory clearance. Fiat Chrysler first partnered with Waymo in 2016. The two companies have worked to test WaymoÂ’s Level 4 technology using retrofitted Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans. “Our now four-year partnership with Waymo continues to break new ground,” Mike Manley, Fiat ChryslerÂ’s CEO, said in a statement. “Incorporating the Waymo Driver, the worldÂ’s leading self-driving technology, into our Pacifica minivans, we became the only partnership actually deploying fully autonomous technology in the real world, on public roads.” Waymo recently introduced its fifth generation of the Waymo Driver system, which it completely redesigned to be able to handle more environments and situations. It combines 360-degree lidar sensors positioned atop the vehicle and at four points around the sides, plus cameras and radars. Waymo said it had already manufactured the new sensors and integrated them onto Jaguar I-Pace test vehicles.