After GM and Allison’s partnership expired last year, the two sides have now agreed to keep things rolling.
For the past couple decades, General Motors and Allison were partners in developing transmissions for Chevy and GMC heavy-duty trucks. Back in late October and early November, news broke of the partnership coming to an end — effectively a divorce — where GM’s latest trucks would no longer have the Allison badge. Fast forward a few months, and the partnership is back on, with new 2026 Model Year trucks getting the Allison badge once again.
On Thursday, a Chevrolet spokesperson noted that, “GM and Allison Transmission have agreed to continue their longstanding collaboration, helping to produce capable and dependable HD trucks that our Chevrolet and GMC customers rely on.” Following up on that point, the new agreement will bring the Allison-branded 10L1000 10-speed transmission into circulation, effectively restoring the status quo from previous years.
Chevy didn’t provide exact numbers on how many trucks left the assembly line since December without Allison badges. For the moment, the automaker has no plans to retrofit any trucks that did leave the factory without the branding, either. As a result of the renewed partnership, there will then be some trucks that don’t have the badges, while those in the coming months will once again get the Allison Transmission badging alongside the engine badge for the 6.6-liter Duramax turbo-diesel.
Will having the branding once again matter to prospective buyers? We’re a bit dubious on that, since it probably isn’t a deciding factor for folks considering a Chevy or GMC HD truck in the first place. After all, the underlying powertrain with the Duramax and the 10L1000 hasn’t fundamentally changed. We’re just talking about a badge.
On the marketing side, however, bringing the GM-Allison partnership back to the forefront may get a few more people talking about GM’s trucks. We’ll have to see. As far as I’m aware, we’re not going to see a Super Bowl ad to that effect.
