Stellantis Will Invest $99 Million Into Development For Four-Cylinder Engine For NA Region!

Stellantis Will Invest $99 Million Into Development For Four-Cylinder Engine For NA Region!​

Three Facilities Will Get Updates For HEV Engine Updates...​

Stellantis (FCA US, LLC) announced earlier today that it would invest $99 million into three of its North American plants to produce a new turbocharged 1.6-liter inline-four-cylinder engine. Investments will be made at the Dundee Engine Complex in Michigan, the Kokomo Casting Plant in Indiana, and the Etobicoke Casting Plant in Toronto.

The new engine will feature direct injection and flexibility for future hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV) applications. A spokesperson from the company confirmed to use, that the turbocharged 1.6-liter will be based on the PSA-source engine used in Peugeot and Citroën vehicles.

Stellantis Will Invest $99 Million Into Development For Four-Cylinder Engine For NA Region!

Stellantis (FCA US, LLC) announced earlier today that it would invest $99 million into three of its North American plants to produce a new turbocharged 1.6-liter inline-four-cylinder engine. Investments will be made at the Dundee Engine Complex in Michigan, the Kokomo Casting Plant in Indiana...

moparinsiders.com

 

[Bili]

1.6 from Peugeot is well known as an unreliable engine and is already almost 20 years on the market.

Le Cost Cutter in the mix?

 

[TripleT]

Pepe Le Cheapskate to you Sir, please keep it respectful.

Only question is will it get as Dark here as the Daimler days or will that mostly be limited to the EU where Fiat brands are now dead just Coach work off PSA cars.

 

[patfromigh]

What's next, the French designed hybrid transmission that's made in China? Whatever happened to the eFlite?

 

[pumadog]

1.6 from Peugeot is well known as an unreliable engine and is already almost 20 years on the market.

Le Cost Cutter in the mix?

The current (or in this case better the upcoming 2025) version? How much is it still the engine from 2006?

The wiki article isn't very clear. Prince engine - Wikipedia

 

[Deckard Cain]

This decision doesn't make much sense to me. The 1.5 is much newer and is similar to the 2.0 Hurricane. Ah well.
Also, in what models in the US could this be used on?

 

[KrisW]

I'm actually not surprised by this. I guess this will be a replacement for the 2.4, so technical merit doesn’t really come into it, so long as the engine is cheap to make, and simple enough that even unskilled servicing won't break it. The 1.6 T produces 178 bhp in its basic version, whcih is right in the ballpark of the 2.4.

I would also consider the 1.5 to be a superior product, but I suspect it's more expensive to make than a design with over a decade of production behind it already.

 

[Bili]

For me there are some political calls here. Keeping French engineering centers busy. Something which is seen as good by France. At the same time a lot of job cuts in Italy.

Pushing with slightly newer design like 1.2 EB and this very old 1.6 EP is to keep France happy. Also they are compatible with an upcoming electrified fake DCT. I'll keep calling it fake DCT because I don't know hot to call while certainly it isn't a DCT because it has a single clutch.

So we will see a quick demise of firefly/GSE for both US and Europe. South America will keep it for some time but even there I'm expecting changes with electrification where French engines will be prioritized.

In my opinion some version of 1.5, of course not Miller, will be far better choice for US.
Or 2.0 with Miller cycle. But we got what we got. Suboptimal solution to keep French jobs.

Similar speech is with eMini Vs CMP. Far superior choice for small cars was discarded. French engineering and French supplier base is something which already gained profits from this.
The last I've heard is that they've skipped any form of 4Xe for JJ. I would say PSA way of doing things, job as usual.

@KrisW
1.6 is considered as a more reliable engine in more powerful versions. Strange but true.
It seems that entry level versions are made to be as cheap as possible. Usual PSA..

Am I happy with all of this? Of course not. It's getting more and more likely that I'll not buy STLA car in the future.

 

[Deckard Cain]

Pepe Le Cheapskate to you Sir, please keep it respectful.

Only question is will it get as Dark here as the Daimler days or will that mostly be limited to the EU where Fiat brands are now dead just Coach work off PSA cars.

But that's what the FCA management for the european brands. They emptied out the product range so that they could be then completely stuffed with coach work from a potential merger partner. This didn't happen in South America and you see the true potential of Fiat's sales.
If Fiat had a similar product range in Europe they would've been a sales juggernaut as they are in South America. It's more than obvious that FCA wanted to partner with Renault but it was vetoed by the French government so they had to go with PSA. It's a pity because Renault was indeed a better fit.

 

[TripleT]

You can not include Brazil in discussion because it is an independent market because of its protectionist tax and trade practices.

 

[Deckard Cain]

You can not include Brazil in discussion because it is an independent market because of its protectionist tax and trade practices.

You can use it as a direct comparison for the commercial performance Fiat could've had in Europe if they actually made new vehicles for the brand instead of hollowing it out to be a plum merger target.

 

[patfromigh]

I hope the people in Auburn Hills have taken to heart the lessons learned from the Fiat 1.4 dumpster Fire motor. The turbo versions were way to peaky, resulting in substandard performance in the heavier cars it was installed in. Regular maintenance items such as spark plugs and oil were unusual, making them expensive and hard to find.

If an engine is to be built here it had better be domesticated and suitable to American preferences.

 

[Deckard Cain]

It probably has already been sold there in the US by BMW. It was used in the 2011–2015 BMW 1 Series (F20) 118i and 2012–2015 BMW 3 Series (F30) 320i ED.
Not sure if you guys got those versions there?
IMO, it's just stupid to waste resources on this when they just got the new 1.5 GME engine. The same for the 1.2, when they have the 1.0 GSE and 1.3 GSE.
Tavares is supposed to be good at rationalizing costs and finding synergies. Investing in older engines is not a rational decision when they have newer engines available, so other factors might be at play.

 

[patfromigh]

We on this side of the pond are subjected to this engine in in some of the Mini models. I have to deal with this in our rental fleet. Unless the engineers on the Chrysler side of Stellantis radically fix the rough running, hard starting, and courseness issues, customers will think Chrysler brought back the carburetor with lean-burn system from the 1970s.

 

[Deckard Cain]

We on this side of the pond are subjected to this engine in in some of the Mini models. I have to deal with this in our rental fleet. Unless the engineers on the Chrysler side of Stellantis radically fix the rough running, hard starting, and courseness issues, customers will think Chrysler brought back the carburetor with lean-burn system from the 1970s.

Now wonder with me why they're betting on this, instead of the more modern engines developed by FCA. They're wasting the investment they made on the GME and GSE engines and wasting more money on flawed and old engines.

 

[pumadog]

We on this side of the pond are subjected to this engine in in some of the Mini models. I have to deal with this in our rental fleet. Unless the engineers on the Chrysler side of Stellantis radically fix the rough running, hard starting, and courseness issues, customers will think Chrysler brought back the carburetor with lean-burn system from the 1970s.

The current Mini (F56) doesn't use the PSA engine anymore. New BMW engine since 2014. So either the cars in your rental fleet are pretty old or you're writing about a different engine.

The 1.6 engine for the US will be for HEV and will start production in 2025. So I'm not sure if we should treat it as the current PSA 1.6 EP ICE and compare with the current 1.5 GSE MHEV.

As for the 1.5 GSE, it's the weak point of the Alfa Tonale in every review, described as rather lethargic (for an Alfa Romeo) in combination with the bought in MHEV transmission. For sure not the best engine ever made. Maybe the upcoming 1.6 HEV evolution is simply better?

I always wondered why they brought out a 1.5 GSE shortly after the 1.3 (modular family with 0.333 per cylinder as the 1.0). Can anyone explain?

 

[patfromigh]

Our Minis are recent model years. I thought they still used PSA engines. They still run terrible.

I suspect the next Ram ProMaster City will be based on the Fiat Scudo (along with the other badges of the van). The Ram PMC was never offered with a diesel option in North America, all have been equipped with the 2.4 Tigershark and 9-speed automatic transmission. Despite the drive train combo having lackluster performance in FCA cars and Jeeps, it acquits itself well in the imported vans.

The 1.6 HEV drivetrain would be a very logical drivetrain for a Scudo based based van, along with a BEV option for fleets and those who have convenient charging facilities.