Late last night USA Today reported that Ram will be offering a standard-duty diesel truck by the third quarter of 2013 as a 2014 model.. We assume that means a 1/2-ton Ram 1500 diesel could be on the dealer lots this year!

We suspect it will be the same 3.0L EcoDiesel engine that can be found in the new diesel Jeep Grand Cherokee, and if so it will have similar output numbers, meaning 240hp and 420 lb-ft of torque. The diesel Grand is said to muster 21/30 mpg, no word on the Ram 1500 diesel mpg numbers at this time.