2018 Ford F150: Half-ton Diesel Truck Wars Are Kicking Into High Gear! (Video)

Power Stroke versus Duramax versus Cummins diesels used to reference the heavy duty pickup trucks. Starting this year, the Ford F-150 Power Stroke 3.0L V6 diesel will start the battle against the existing Ram 1500 EcoDiesel 3.0L V6 and the upcoming Chevy Silverado 1500 Duramax 3.0L inline-6. How do these half-ton truck diesel trucks compare? This is everything we know about the latest light-duty diesel trucks.

2018 Ford F-150 Power Stroke

We know the most about the 2018 Ford F-150 Power Stroke diesel, so let’s start here. The truck is using a modified version of Ford’s 3.0-liter V6 that is built in the UK. The latest “baby” Power Stroke is rated at 250 hp and 440 lb-ft of torque. Maximum payload and towing ratings are: 2,020 lbs and 11,400 lbs. The truck will be offered for consumers in higher-end Lariat, King Ranch, and Platinum trim levels. It will be F-150’s most expensive engine option (not including the Ford Raptor), costing $2,400 more than a comparable truck with a 3.5L EcoBoost V6. Ford is targeting 30 MPG on the highway with the new engine in the F-150.

The truck goes on sale in Spring of 2018. It will be the first new half-ton diesel on the U.S. market.

2019 Chevy Silverado 1500 Duramax

Chevrolet surprised all with the Detroit Auto Show announcement of the in-house designed and built 3.0L inline-6 Duramax turbo-diesel. Truckers will tell you that an inline engine configuration is the most smooth and torque-rich engine configuration. They would be correct. Inline diesel engines tend to be high in low-end torque and lower revving setups. Just consider Ram’s 6.7L Cummins inline-6. We do not know any specifications for this engine, but Chevy said it will be available for sale during the 2019 model year. This approximately means that it will go sale sometime before December of 2019. The new 2019 Silverado 1500 will go on sale at the end of 2018.

If I could speculate, then I would says that 250 hp and 450 lb-ft of torque are well within reach of this upcoming inline-6.

2019 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel

Ram has been selling the 3.0L EcoDiesel V6 in the Ram 1500 since 2014, minus the time of a stop-sale for emissions  investigation. The first generation of the engine is rated at 240 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque. Recently, Jeep made an announcement for the next iteration of the 3.0L V6 engine for the Jeep Wrangler. The new Jeep rating is a chart-topping 260 hp and 442 lb-ft of torque. Will Ram use this identical engine in the Ram 1500? We will have to wait and see.

The new Ram 1500 with the EcoDiesel should reach the market sometime in calendar year 2019.

Here is a closer look at the 2018 Ford F150 from the 2018 Detroit Auto Show.