After Reaching 10 Million Mark for the Pentastar Engine, FCA Readies for More

The Pentastar engine family was first introduced in 2010 as a 3.6-liter V6. From the start, it was deployed on several Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles, but quickly became a very important technology for the Americans.
 
In less than four years, the Pentastar would come to be a replacement for no less than seven other six-cylinder engine families. 

Last week, at the Trenton Engine Complex in Michigan, the 10 millionth Pentastar unit rolled off assembly lines as one of the company’s most versatile technologies in ages.

Thanks to its configuration, the unit can be mounted longitudinally or transversally in a car, can be paired with front-, rear-, and all-wheel-drive configurations, and works in conjunction with either manual or automatic transmissions.

The bet the carmaker made with the Pentastar a decade ago paid off, and currently the engine is used to equip half of all the models sold by FCA under the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram brands.

“The Pentastar family has all the hallmarks of an enduring icon,” said in a statement Bob Lee, Head of Engine, Powertrain and Electrified Propulsion at FCA.

“We upped the ante among high-volume, mainstream-market, V-6 engines. And our customers won big. Pentastar engines do exactly what they were engineered to do. They deliver satisfying experiences in a wide range of driving conditions.”

This year the Pentastar will be deployed on the new Jeep Gladiator as well, thus making the unit available on 16 car models belonging to 10 vehicle segments.

Looking to the years ahead, FCA plans to update the engine family even further. It has already begun doing so, equipping, for instance, the one in the 2019 Ram 1500 with the eTorque mild-hybrid system.