Well, well, well, it seems everybody is looking to get a piece of that Half-Ton Diesel Pie. Hot on the heels of Ford’s announcement last week, Chevy announced over the weekend that they, too, are going to release a diesel in a half-ton configuration. The 2019 Silverado will come with six engine/transmission choices, one of which is an all-new 3.0L Duramax inline six-cylinder diesel engine.
The other notable improvement is that the truck will be up to 450 pounds lighter than the current model, because of select areas of the truck being replaced with aluminum. Specifically, the hood, doors, and tailgate. The frame and bed will still be made of steel, so put down your pitchforks.
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They have yet to release any numbers on how that new 3-liter engine will perform, but given the quoted performance of their competition—Ford’s F150 Power Stroke claims 250hp and 440 lb/ft of torque, while the RAM EcoDiesel claims 240hp and 420 lb/ft of torque—as well as the performance of their own 2.8L in the Colorado, it’s a pretty safe bet that this new engine configuration will land in that same ballpark. One interesting thing to note is that one of the transmission options is a ten-speed. That’s…kind of a lot of gears?
More diesel options on the market are never a bad thing, so it’ll be interesting to see how this all shakes out in the coming months. To see all the fine print, go here.