Nissan partnering with Cummins on truck diesel engine

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Cummins and Nissan announced a partnership Tuesday that will bring a 5 liter Cummins diesel to the next generation Nissan Titan.

Now in the latter stages of development and testing, the available Cummins 5.0L V8 Turbo Diesel engine has been optimized for the next generation Titan as a result of the partnership. Cummins also is developing a version of the engine for its commercial vehicle customers, according to Nissan.

“We have done our homework on the next-generation Titan,” said Fred Diaz, divisional vice president, Nissan Sales & Marketing, Service & Parts, Nissan North America. “Truck owners told us there’s a demand for the performance and torque of a diesel in a capable truck that doesn’t require the jump up to a heavy-duty commercial pickup.”

Nissan has previously announced the next-generation Titan will add powertrain options and cab-and-box configurations to broaden the appeal of the new truck when it comes to market.

“This new engine will offer the right balance of power, performance and fuel economy while delivering the dependability that customers expect of a Cummins engine,” said Dave Crompton, vice president, Cummins Engine Business. “This will be a great package.”

With a torque rating in the mid-500s (lb-ft) and more than 300 horsepower, the Cummins 5.0L V8 Turbo Diesel will provide light truck customers the combination of towing capacity and mileage that is expected in the highly-competitive North American truck marketplace, according to Nissan. 

The Cummins 5.0L V8 Turbo Diesel will be built at the Columbus Engine Plant, in Columbus, Ind.

“For the people at the Columbus Engine Plant this is very exciting,” said Jeff Caldwell, General Manager of Cummins’ pickup truck business and a 31-year employee of the Company who started at the plant. “For the first time in a little over a decade, we’ll be shipping engines from this place which has played such an important role in our history.”

Caldwell added, within the next two years both Cummins Columbus engine assembly plants – CEP and CMEP (the Columbus MidRange Engine Plant) – will both be operating at full strength again.

The Titan program is being led by teams in Nissan Americas’ headquarters in Franklin, Tenn., while engineering and testing is performed by Nissan Technical Center North America in Farmington Hills, Mich. and Stanfield, Ariz. as well as Nissan’s global engineering center. Design is being led by Nissan Design America in La Jolla, Calif.

Like the current model, the next-generation Titan will be built at Nissan’s Canton, Miss. vehicle assembly plant and its gasoline engines cast, forged and assembled at Nissan’s Decherd, Tenn. powertrain plant.

Nissan declined to announce launch dates at this stage in the truck’s development, however engineering prototype trucks powered by the Cummins engine are currently undergoing extensive on-public-highway performance and durability testing, the company says. 

Cummins says the engine was developed to meet the latest federal emissions regulations and includes turbo technology, filters from the Company’s filtration business, SCR technology from the Cummins Emission Solutions and more.