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Duramax Diesel and Allison Transmission to Power New Chevy Commercial Truck

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Chevy Commercial vehicles powered by Duramax Diesel and Allison Transmission

General Motors already boasts the industry’s most expansive portfolio of diesel-powered passenger cars, crossovers, pickups, and vans, and today the American automaker confirmed that Chevrolet’s highly-anticipated, all-new Class 4/5 commercial truck will feature a Duramax engine mated to an Allison transmission.

It’s the same time-tested motor-and-gearbox combination that has powered close to two million trucks.

The announcement was made at The Work Truck Show 2017, where Chevrolet also confirmed the truck is being jointly developed by Chevy and Navistar, and is on track to launch in 2018.

“Our new Chevrolet medium-duty will be the flagship of our truck portfolio for fleet and commercial customers, and we believe the strength of Duramax/Allison powertrain combination will be able to tackle various jobs—from general contracting to urban delivery to bucket loaders and wreckers,” said John Schwegman, US director of Commercial Product and Medium Duty for GM Fleet. “To win customers, we’re marshaling the best diesel and heavy-duty transmission engineers in the world and offering more choices than any other manufacturer.”

Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, Allison Transmission is the largest designer, developer, manufacturer, and distributor of medium- and heavy-duty fully automatic transmissions, as well as a leader in hybrid-propulsion systems. Allison has also been instrumental in powering Chevrolet’s hardest-working trucks since the 1950s.

Duramax diesel engines have a briefer history with the bowtie brand, having first been introduced in Chevrolet and GMC trucks in 2001. Since then, though, they have accumulated more than 100 billion miles of real-world experience. The engines have also been continually refined over the last 16 years, introducing first-in-class technologies such as aluminum cylinder heads, the quick-start system, and the Venturi Jet Drive Oil separator.

Chevrolet promises to release technical specifications for its new medium-duty truck—including cab and frame dimensions, horsepower and torque, GAWR, GVWR, payload and other ratings—closer to the launch date.