General Motors Diesel Division

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General Motors Diesel Division (GMDD) was a GM unit created in 1938 to market and support GM’s diesel engines. It mainly worked with the Detroit Diesel Engine Division, which built lightweight diesel engines for many uses, including buses, boats, military equipment, construction and farm equipment, pumping, and power generation.

In 1939, Detroit Diesel Series 71 engines were installed in Yellow Coach buses, and GM acquired Yellow Coach in 1943 to form the GMC Truck and Coach Division. Diesel engines became widespread during World War II and the postwar era. GMDD built a large international network for marketing, service, and parts for GM diesel engines after the war.

In 1962, GM’s Electro-Motive Division (EMD), which already had its own marketing and service infrastructure from the locomotive business, took over the production and marketing of large diesel engines that had been produced by the Cleveland Diesel Engine Division. In 1965 GMDD was absorbed by the Detroit Diesel Engine Division. The Detroit Diesel Engine Division later became Detroit Diesel Corporation after a majority share was sold to Penske Corporation, with the Detroit Diesel brand continuing under later ownership.

GMDD is not the same as General Motors Diesel, Ltd., the Canadian EMD subsidiary formed in 1949, or the Diesel Division of General Motors of Canada formed in 1969.